Professional Bio

Professor Wilcox’s research and teaching interests lie in the following areas: community differences in crime and criminal justice; crime opportunity and crime-related decision-making; victimization; reactions to the threat of victimization (i.e., perceived risk, fear, precautionary and avoidance behavior); gender and crime/victimization; school crime and prevention.

With funding from Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, Professor Wilcox recently collected survey data on a national sample of 1500 adults with ongoing analyses focused on reactions to the threat of crime victimization in terms of precautionary and avoidance behavior.

Also, with funding from Penn State’s Criminal Justice Research Center and the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, she is engaged in a new mixed-methods study of experiences with community corrections (probation and parole) in rural Pennsylvania counties from the perspectives of both clients and officers. The project will analyze officer work-life satisfaction/well-being and supervisory practices and their impacts on officers’ and clients’ perceptions about community supervision effectiveness. The project will also examine successful strategies and practices used by rural probation and parole agencies to overcome capacity limitations.