Department of Sociology and Criminology

Professional Bio

My research and teaching interests lie in communities and crime, environmental criminology (crime opportunity), victimization, school crime, and crime prevention. I study the causes, consequences, and prevention of crime and victimization in neighborhood and school contexts. In particular, I focus on how individual- and place-level risk factors for experiencing crime or victimization can be enhanced or mitigated by neighborhood and/or school characteristics.

I am currently collaborating on several articles and a book that present and synthesize findings from my work as a co-Investigator on a longitudinal study of offending and victimization among 7th-10th grade youths that was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  Current analyses of the data focus on the effects of retaliatory norms on student victimization and the potentially gendered effects of school crime prevention tactics on student misbehavior.  Other colleagues and I are examining trajectories of delinquency and victimization among Korean youth, with a particular focus on understanding the roles of personality, deviant lifestyles, and criminal identity.  Finally, with funding from PSU's Criminal Justice Research Center, I am engaged in a study of drug cases in rural Pennsylvania, 2010-2019, with a focus on the role of traditional versus intermediate punishment on recidivism, by specific drug type.