Bio

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I am the Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University. I received my B.S. in Sociology from Oregon State University and my M.S. and Ph.D. in Criminology from Florida State University. My research foci encompass various aspects of juvenile delinquency and young adult offending, but my current work is concentrated in three areas. First, my research focuses on self-control, both it sources and consequences. Second, I have been examining the behavioral and health consequences of a lack of sleep among teenagers. Third, my recent research investigates racial and ethnic disparities in school discipline and juvenile justice sanctioning among youth. My work has been published in outlets including Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Experimental Criminology,  Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Crime & Delinquency,  Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Sleep Health, Intelligence, and Preventive Medicine. For my contributions, I received the 2016 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) New Scholar Award. Previously as a faculty member at Florida International University I was also named a 2016 Top Scholar for Research and a 2019 Top Scholar for Student Mentorship.

Currently, I am doing consultancy work on a multi-year project aimed at evaluating the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program in Central America, funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). While the effectiveness of the GREAT program on reducing gang membership and improving youth attitudes toward the police has been evaluated in the U.S., researchers have yet to assess its effectiveness among youth in Central America. As such, the work represents an important step forward in evaluating the portability of GREAT to contexts outside of the U.S.

Outside of academia, you can find me playing a lot of pickleball, relaxing with my hounds Buford and Woody, and traveling with my wife Jessie Lee to places like Egypt, Greece, Peru, Spain, and Italy. I also have developed an affinity for storm chasing and witnessed five different tornadoes in May of 2024 in the Midwest U.S.