Kaleena J. Burkes earned a B.A. and M.S in Criminal Justice from The University of Alabama. Her research interests focus on prisoner reentry and recidivism, life course criminology, race and crime, contextual effects, gender differences in recidivism, quantitative methods, and criminological theory. She is currently working on her dissertation under the direction of Dr. Eric Stewart. Kaleena’s dissertation examines whether ex-inmate access to key reentry services (i.e. housing services, employment services, and education services) upon release will reduce recidivism.
Amaia Iratzoqui is a Ph.D. candidate whose main research interests center on the themes of gender and victimization. Her dissertation research develops and applies an integrated theoretical model towards more fully explaining the links between child maltreatment, offending, and victimization, including dating victimization. This work also aims to uncover whether there are distinct gender differences in elements of the integrated model that contribute to gendered pathways of victimization and offending. Her published research includes a longitudinal analysis of scholarly influence within twenty of the top American criminology and criminal justice academic journals. Amaia is also collaborating on a number of side projects, including an examination of the effect of monetary sanctions on probation outcomes and an application of the criminal career methodology to scholar careers.
Dylan Jackson is a Ph.D. candidate who is primarily interested in exploring the biosocial and developmental underpinnings to antisocial outcomes. Dylan’s dissertation examines the perinatal and early childhood predictors of the development and stability of antisocial traits and behaviors in children. His prior research has indicated that young children with neuropsychological deficits are at risk of exhibiting low self-control and misconduct through early adolescence. Other current projects examine a number of gene-environment interactions between perinatal/early childhood risk factors (e.g., low birth weight, birth complications, short duration of breastfeeding) and indicators of genetic risk as predictors of criminogenic outcomes (e.g., psychopathy, ADHD). Research articles have appeared in journals such as Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Journal of Research in Personality, Journal of Criminal Justice, and Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice.
Joshua May is a Ph.D. candidate whose primary interests include the biosocial and neuroanatomical underpinnings to violent and criminal behavior with a special interest in the development of psychopathic and life-course persistent offending. His current projects examine the social push perspective by investigating gene-environment interactions between maternal prenatal smoking and developmental risk factors (e.g., detached mothers, single mother families, and birth complications) in the prediction of antisocial behavioral outcomes. Joshua’s dissertation focuses on the development of psychopathic personality traits in adulthood by determining genetic risk, identifying specific genotypes associated with psychopathy, and investigating how these genes interact with criminogenic environments. Research articles have appeared in Criminal Justice and Behavior and International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, and Joshua has presented at several conferences including the American Society of Criminology and the National Conference for Correctional Health Care.