College Faculty

Thomas G. Blomberg

Thomas G. Blomberg
Dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology
Executive Director, Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research

Blomberg’s research is focused upon identifying ways to more effectively link research knowledge to public policy. This includes examining the relationship between educational achievement among incarcerated youthful offenders and successful community reintegration.

tblomberg@fsu.edu

Megan Augustyn

Megan Augustyn
Associate Professor

Megan Augustyn’s research focuses on the study of the causes and consequences of crime, victimization, and other health-risk behaviors across the life course. 

ma22br@fsu.edu

William D. Bales

William D. Bales
Professor Emeritus
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research

Prior to joining the faculty in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University in August of 2003, Bill Bales was the director of research with the Florida Department of Corrections since 1991 and has worked in various research capacities with the Florida Supreme Court

wbales@fsu.edu

Kevin M. Beaver

Kevin M. Beaver
Judith Rich Harris Professor of Criminology
Director, Distance Learning Program

Beaver’s research examines the biosocial underpinnings to antisocial behaviors. He has employed behavioral genetic and molecular genetic methodologies to unpack the gene-environmental basis to a range of criminal and delinquent outcomes.

kbeaver@fsu.edu

Julie Brancale

Julie Brancale
Assistant Professor

Julie Brancale's research focuses on understanding the causes, consequences, and justice system responses to financial exploitation and victimization of older adults. Additionally, she studies the impact of juvenile justice system involvement on education, desistence, and delinquency.

julie.brancale@fsu.edu

Erin Castro

Erin Castro
Assistant Professor

Erin Castro received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in the Department of Sociology, Criminology and Law. Her research focuses on disentangling the effect of perceived and objective control on victimization, offending, and substance use over the life course.

edcastro@fsu.edu

Ted Chiricos

Ted Chiricos
Professor Emeritus | William Julius Wilson Professor of Criminology

Ted Chiricos’ recent research examined the predictors and consequences of criminal justice punitiveness. This work has shown that economic insecurity and the extent to which people link crime with race, increase support for harsh punitive policies.

tchiricos@fsu.edu

Cecilia Chouhy

Cecilia Chouhy
Associate Professor

Cecilia Chouhy received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from University of Cincinnati.

cchouhy@fsu.edu

Billy R. Close

Billy R. Close
Assistant Professor

Dr. Billy Close is currently an Assistant Professor and Director of Service Learning and Mentoring in the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Florida State University.

bclose@fsu.edu

Jennifer Copp

Jennifer Copp
Associate Professor

Jennifer Copp received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Bowling Green State University. Her research focuses broadly on the social influences on crime and other problem behaviors, in addition to the marginalizing effects of criminal justice involvement.

jcopp@fsu.edu

Kimberly M. Davidson

Davidson Headshot Fall 2021
Assistant Professor

Kimberly M. Davidson received her Ph.D. in Criminology from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on corrections, programming and rehabilitation, community reentry, substance use.  

kdavidson@fsu.edu

Emma E. Fridel

Emma E. Fridel
Assistant Professor

Emma E. Fridel received her Ph.D. in Criminology and Justice Policy from Northeastern University. She primarily studies violence and aggression with a focus on homicide, including school violence, homicide–suicide, serial and mass murder, and fatal officer-citizen encounters. Dr.

efridel@fsu.edu

Marc Gertz

Marc Gertz
Professor Emeritus
Faculty Affiliate, Institute for the Prevention of Financial Fraud

Gertz is most well known for successfully conducting thousands and thousands of surveys, which have been used by professors and doctoral students within and outside the college for high quality research and publications in some of the top journals in the field.

mgertz@fsu.edu

Carter Hay

Hay
Professor
Director, Graduate Program

Hay’s research examines the causes and prevention of crime with special attention to the family environment, the development of self-control, and policy efforts to reduce juvenile crime.

chay@fsu.edu

Bryan Holmes

Bryan Holmes
Assistant Professor

Bryan Holmes received his Ph.D in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati.  His research focuses on sentencing, criminal justice policies, discretion in court processes, and the predictors of discr

bmh20bb@fsu.edu

Young-An Kim

Young-An Kim
Assistant Professor

Young-An Kim received his Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of California-Irvine. His research interests include neighborhoods and crime, criminology of place, geo-spatial analysis, urban sociology, and quantitative research methods.

youngan.kim@fsu.edu

Gary Kleck

Gary Kleck
Professor Emeritus | David J. Bordua Professor

Professor Kleck's recent research has found that employing more police officers or increasing police productivity in the form of more arrests per officer has no measurable effect on the public’s level of fear of crime.

gkleck@fsu.edu

Brendan Lantz

Brendan Lantz
Associate Professor

Brendan Lantz received his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.  His research interests focus on hate crime, violence, victimization, and co-offending.

blantz@fsu.edu

Daniel P. Mears

Daniel P. Mears
Distinguished Research Professor
Mark C. Stafford Professor of Criminology

Mears’ current research examines crime causation and criminal and juvenile justice.

dmears@fsu.edu

George B. Pesta

George B. Pesta
Director, Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research

George Pesta is the Director of the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research. At the Center, he manages funded research projects, supervises GRAs and collaborates with faculty on project deliverables, research reports, and presentations.

gpesta@fsu.edu

Sylwia J. Piatkowska

Sylwia J. Piatkowska
Associate Professor

Sylwia J. Piatkowska received her Ph.D. in Sociology from State University of New York at Albany. Her areas of interest include hate crime, immigration and crime, and both international and comparative criminology.

spiatkowska@fsu.edu

Joseph A. Schwartz

Schwartz Headshot
Associate Professor

Joseph Schwartz’s research is focused on the interplay between biological and environmental influences in the development of behavior and health outcomes across major stages of the life course. 

jaschwartz@fsu.edu

Keller Sheppard

Keller Sheppard
Assistant Professor

Keller Sheppard received his Ph.D. in Criminology and Justice Policy from Northeastern University. His primary research focus is on police decision making and juvenile justice processes.

ksheppard@fsu.edu

Sonja E. Siennick

Sonja E. Siennick
Professor

Sonja Siennick studies criminal offending and mental health problems in the contexts of the life course and kinship and friendship relations.

ssiennick@fsu.edu

Brian J. Stults

Brian J. Stults
Professor

Stults' research addresses the issues of race, crime, and community in urban areas, with a particular focus on segregation, racial threat, and spatial

bstults@fsu.edu

Gordon P. Waldo

Gordon P. Waldo
Professor Emeritus

Dr. Waldo’s experience covers a wide range of activities related to academic criminology and the criminal justice system.

gwaldo@fsu.edu

Patricia Y. Warren

Patricia Y. Warren
Professor
Director, Undergraduate Program

Patricia Y. Warren, received her Ph.D. in Sociology from North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on social control and punishment, racial and gender stratification, racial profiling, collateral consequences of incarceration and the school to prison pipeline.

pwarren@fsu.edu

Marin R. Wenger

Marin R. Wenger
Associate Professor

Marin Wenger received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University. Her work focuses on stratification, communities and crime, deviance, and quantitative methods.

mwenger@fsu.edu

Steven Zane

Steven Zane
Assistant Professor

Steven Zane received his Ph.D. in Criminology from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University. Additionally, Dr. Zane holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

szane@fsu.edu