RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
Our department has nationally and internationally recognized scholars whose research addresses critical questions about society and the criminal justice system and has significant academic and policy impacts.
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP
Lorena Ávila, PhD, was one of the winners of the Research on Latinx Politics and American Institutions award presented by Arizona State University’s Center for Latina/os and American Politics Research for her research titled “Crimmigration courts: Upholding inequality by bureaucratic means.” The award supports scholars embarking on significant research into how American political institutions impact Latina/o populations.
Adjunct faculty member, Eric Gibson, JD, was selected back in October to supervise the New Jersey Attorney General Office’s racketeering case against power broker George E. Norcross III. The case is ongoing.
Rory Kramer, PhD, with coauthors Victor Ray, PhD, and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, PhD, published the article “Introduction: Racism of omission” in Social Problems.
Max Osborn, PhD, with coauthors Brian C. Moore, PhD, and Christina DeJong, PhD, published the article "Consequences and considerations of 'free speech' in higher education: Validating trans and non-binary identities in the classroom setting" in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education.
Kelly Welch, PhD, and Allison Ann Payne, PhD, published the chapter “Unequal “in”security: How differential school security approaches discriminate against students of color” in the Handbook of Anti-Discriminatory Education.
Lorena Ávila, PhD, focuses on the role of law and legal bureaucracies in propelling inequalities through the immigration system. Her research aims to give visibility to the experiences, resources, and challenges of migrant families and migrant’s rights advocacy networks navigating inequality and racialization propelled by bureaucratic structures in place.
Tom Arvanites, PhD, is investigating the effect of residential segregation on the incarceration rate of African Americans for drug offenses.
Meredith Bergey, PhD, is working on a paper with Thomas Mackie, PhD, Giuseppina Chiri, PhD, and Nikki Freeman, PhD, that examines intersecting social identities and health inequalities.
Glenn Bracey’s, PhD, scholarship examines the intersection of race, social movements, and religion. Drawing on research conducted through the Race, Religion, and Justice Project (rrjp.org), Bracey’s current work explores whiteness as a religion and the implications of the religion of whiteness for Christians of color.
Rick Eckstein, PhD, is currently exploring the social class bias in non-revenue intercollegiate sports. He recently appeared on the September episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (S29 E9) where he discusses special admissions for college athletes.
Guillermo Jesús Escaño (he/him), conducts research focusing on crime and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized criminal groups, the structural and cultural causes and consequences of violence, and criminal justice policy (evidence-based practices). He is a quantitative researcher, mainly using panel and time series models.
Heidi Grundetjern, PhD, is currently conducting research focused on women's drug use utilizing a trauma-informed psychosocial perspective.
Lance Hannon, PhD, is currently working on a variety of sociological and criminological research projects utilizing digital text analysis tools.
Melissa Hodges, PhD, is currently working on a project that examines the relationship between the structural arrangements of care systems and variation in the distribution of economic inequality across gender, race, and class cross-nationally.
Brian J. Jones, PhD, is writing a book for Palgrave Macmillan entitled The Pursuit of Happiness in America.
Rory Kramer, PhD, is finishing work on a book manuscript about diversity within the Black student body at selective colleges and universities with colleagues at Penn and Princeton. He is also working on a related paper on the impact of racial disparities in exposure to stressful events on college completion rates.
Jill MCCorkel, PhD, is writing a book manuscript about gender and mass incarceration that examines the long term incarceration of women who are survivors of gender violence. She is also collaborating with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office on a grant to explore the relationship between prosecutorial charging decisions and increases in women's incarceration rates. In 2022, Dr. McCorkel received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Corrections and Sentencing for the contributions of her non-profit organization, The Philadelphia Justice Project for Women & Girls. In 2023, Dr. McCorkel served as the co-chair of the Annual Meetings of the American Society of Criminology.
Max Osborn, PhD, is examining how LGBTQIA+ people navigate risk, safety, and gender presentation during encounters with institutional actors such as police and service providers. He is also studying representations of transgender victims of violence in the news media.
Allison Ann Payne, PhD, is collaborating with our department’s research associate, Denise Wilson, on a multilevel study examining the influence of school-related risk and protective factors on traditional and cyberbullying.
Brianna Remster, PhD, and Melissa Hodges, PhD, are investigating the incarceration-wage penalty for women compared to men.
Ken Sun, PhD, is currently working on two manuscripts, including a single-authored book on aging and migration, and the other on transnational social protection (with Professors Peggy Levitt, Erica Dobb, and Ruxandra Paul).
Kelly Welch, PhD, is editing the Research Handbook on Race, Crime, and Justice. The handbook is under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing.
Emerson, Michael and Glenn Bracey. (2024). The Religion of Whiteness. How Racism Distorts Christian Faith. Oxford University Press.
Jones, Brian. (2024). The Pursuit of Happiness in America. A Sociological Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan.
Levitt, Peggy, Erica Dobbs, Ken Chih-Yan Sun, and Ruxandra Paul. (2023). Transnational Social Protection. Oxford University Press.
Charles, Camille Z., Massey, Douglas S., Torres, Kimberly C., & Kramer, Rory. (2022). Young, Gifted and Diverse: Origins of the New Black Elite. Princeton University Press.
Sun, Ken Chih-Yan. (2021). Time and Migration: How Long-Term Taiwanese Migrants Negotiate Later Life. Cornell University Press.
Jones, Brian. (2019). Social Capital in American Life. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bergey, Meredith R., Angela M. Filipe, Peter Conrad, and Ilina Singh (Eds.) (2018). Global Perspectives on ADHD. Social Dimensions of Diagnosis and Treatment in Sixteen Countries. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ávila, Lorena and Sarah Tosh. (2024). The institutional hearing program and the incarceration-to-deportation pipeline. Critical Criminology.
Ávila, Lorena and David Ibañez. (2023). An expensive pass to freedom: Bond amounts trajectories in immigration court. American Behavioral Scientist.
Rengifo, Andres F., Lorena Ávila, and David Ibañez. (2023). Criminal defense work in a sample of arrest hearings in three states of Mexico: The micro-dynamics of case-level engagement, influence, and strategy. Crime, Law and Social Change, 79(5), 555-580.
Bergey, Meredith. (2024). Medicalization in global context: Current insights, pressing questions, and future directions through the case of ADHD. Sociology Compass.
Bergey, Meredith. (2024). “Pills don’t teach skills”: ADHD coaching, identity work, and the push toward the liminal medicalization of ADHD. Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Chiri, Giuseppina, Meredith Bergey, and Thomas Mackie. (2022). Deserving but not entitled: The social construction of autism spectrum disorder in federal policy. Social Science and Medicine, 301.
Bergey, Meredith, Giuseppina Chiri, Nikki Freeman, and Thomas I. Mackie. (2022). Mapping mental health inequalities: The intersecting effects of gender, race, class, and ethnicity on ADHD diagnosis. Sociology of Health and Illness.
Bracey, Glenn. (2022). The spirit of Critical Race Theory. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 8(4), 431-570.
Bracey, Glenn and Reverend Renee McKenzie-Hayward. (2022). Resistance in sacred spaces. In A. Rodriguez, C. Barry, and A. Armenta (Eds.), The Road to Sanctuary: Insights from the City of Sisterly Affection and Brotherly Love.
Escaño, Guillermo Jesús and William Alex Pridemore. (2024). Population-level alcohol consumption and homicide rates in Latin America: A fixed effects panel analysis, 1961–2019. The British Journal of Criminology, 64(3), 656-674.
Escaño, Guillermo Jesús. (2024). Latin American homicide. In K. Burgason & M. DeLisi. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Homicide Studies (pp. 41-64). Routledge.
Escaño, Guillermo Jesús. (2023). Region-specific structural covariates of homicide rates in Latin America: State legitimacy and remittances. Justice Quarterly, 1-34.
Grundetjern, Heidi. (2022). A decade of change in the gendered organizational structure of methamphetamine markets in the American Midwest. The British Journal of Criminology.
Grundetjern, Heidi and Alessandra Milagros Early (2022). The role of sex and compulsory heterosexuality within the rural methamphetamine market. Crime & Delinquency.
Hannon, Lance, Lindsay Redditt, and Brooke Cordes. (2024). Curbing pretextual traffic stops to reduce racial profiling. Agenda for Social Justice 3 Solutions for 2024.
Hannon, Lance and Meredith Bergey. (2024). Policy variation in the external evaluation of research for tenure at U.S. universities. Research Evaluation.
Kramer, Rory, Victor Ray, and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. (2025). Introduction: Racism of Omission. Social Problems.
Kramer, Rory and Brianna Remster. (2022). The slow violence of contemporary policing. Annual Review of Criminology, 5.
McCorkel, Jill, Paisley Hahn, and Isabella Balian. (2024). Parenting from prison. Graterfriends.
Osborn, Max, Tanyanne Ball, and Valli Rajah. (2024). Peer support work in the context of intimate partner violence: A scoping review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse
Moore, B., Max Osborn, and C. DeJong. (in press). Consequences and considerations of “free speech” in higher education: Validating trans and non-binary identities in the classroom setting. Journal of Criminal Justice Education. doi:10.1080/10511253.2024.2378453.
Osborn, Max. (2023). “Something could happen to you at any moment”: Safety, strategy, and solidarity among trans and nonbinary protesters against police violence. Critical Criminology.
DeJong, Christina, Max Osborn, and Harnoor Kaur. (2023). Trans panic: The representation of trans women as murder victims in true crime podcasts. In A. E. Goldberg, D. C. Slakoff, and C. L. Buist (Eds.), The (Mis) Representation of Queer Lives in True Crime (pp. 160-182).
Osborn, Max. (2023). Difficult, deceptive, and dangerous: Portrayals of victimized transgender men in crime news coverage. In A. E. Goldberg, D. C. Slakoff, and C. L. Buist (Eds.), The (Mis) Representation of Queer Lives in True Crime (pp. 183-201).
Osborn, Max (2022). LGBTQIA+ people’s service access during the COVID-19 pandemic: Obstacles to care and provider adaptations. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services.
Osborn, Max (2022). U.S. news coverage of transgender victims of fatal violence: An exploratory content analysis. Violence Against Women, 28(9), 2033-2056.
Osborn, Max (2022). “Nobody ever correctly recognizes me”: Nonbinary presentation, visibility, and safety across contexts. In V. Demos and M. T. Segal (Eds.), Advances in Gender Research: Gender Visibility & Erasure, 33, 51-69.
Payne, Allison Ann (2024). Reducing school crime and student misbehavior: An evidence-based analysis. In B. Welsh, S. Zane, and D. Mears (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Crime and Justice Policy.
Payne, Allison Ann and Kelly Welch. (2023). Minority threat in schools and differential security manifestations: Examining unequal control, surveillance, and protection. Crime & Delinquency.
Payne, Allison Ann and Kelly Welch (2022). Transforming school climate and student discipline: The restorative justice promise for peace. In G. Velez and T. Gavrielides (Eds.), Restorative Justice: Promoting Peace and Wellbeing.
Wilson, Denise, Kirsten L. Witherup and Allison Ann Payne. (2022). prevention and intervention programs for bullying perpetration and victimization. In C. Donoghue (Ed.), The Sociology of Bullying.
Remster, Brianna, Chris M. Smith, and Rory Kramer. (2022). Race, gender, and police violence in the shadow of controlling images. Social Problems.
Sun, Ken Chih-Yan and Baiyu Su. (2023). “Who should care for our parents?” How the perceived achievement hierarchy complicates transnational family relations in China? International Migration Review.
Sun, Ken Chih-Yan and Nicole Newendorp. (2023). How age and life stage of relocation fosters social belonging: Comparing two groups of older migrants in the United States. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.
Welch, Kelly and Allison Ann Payne (2025). Unequal “in”security: How differential school security approaches discriminate against students of color. In A. Eizadirad and P. P. Trifonas (Eds.), Handbook of Anti-Discriminatory Education.
Welch, Kelly, Peter S. Lehmann, Cecilia Chouhy and Ted Chiricos. (2022). Cumulative racial and ethnic disparities along the school-to-prison pipeline. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Anthony Miller '27 CLAS
From a young age, I have been deeply interested in the legal system and its role in shaping society. Majoring in criminology at Villanova was a logical choice, allowing me to critically examine crime, justice, and legal structures. While my coursework has provided a strong theoretical foundation, my internship experience at the Bergen County Superior Court in New Jersey has been essential in developing a practical understanding of the legal field. As an intern for the Honorable James X. Sattely, Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division, I gained direct exposure to courtroom proceedings and the judicial decision-making process. I assisted court staff with criminal matters, conducted legal research into New Jersey laws using a database called Westlaw, reviewed case materials, and observed trials and hearings. Drafting legal memoranda and analyzing presentencing reports reinforced the research and analytical skills I developed in Dr. Brianna Remster’s Research Methods class.
Most impactful was observing sentencing hearings, where legal arguments played a profound role in influencing judicial rulings. I was particularly drawn to the litigation processing unfolding firsthand – the strategic questioning, the presentation of evidence, and the persuasive advocacy – which deepened my appreciation for the complexities of a trial court. These interactions also enhanced my understanding of legal advocacy and courtroom dynamics, providing insight into how attorneys navigate complex cases. Additionally, I observed the negotiation of plea agreements, the presentation of pretrial motions, and the discretionary role judges play in determining sentences.
For students considering a criminology major, Villanova’s Department of Sociology and Criminology offers a wide range of electives that provide deeper insight into various aspects of the field. Courses such as White-Collar Crime, Supreme Court, Police and Society, Crime and Delinquency Prevention, and Crime and Violence in Latin America broaden perspectives and complement real-world experiences. Internship opportunities bridge the gap between academics and practical applications, offering valuable preparation for careers in law, policy, and criminal justice.
I am grateful to Villanova’s Department of Sociology and Criminology for bolstering my critical thinking skills and providing the knowledge necessary to advance in this field. Each course and professional experience have strengthened my understanding of the legal system, and I look forward to continuing this path through school and in the workforce.
Emily Robinson '25 CLAS
During my four years at Villanova, the Department of Sociology and Criminology has been an integral part of my intellectual development. Although a rigid definition of “sociology” and its constituents is perhaps nonexistent, I have found that thinking with a sociological mindset is relevant in every academic discipline, complimenting most areas of study. As a double major in art history and sociology, thinking sociologically has provided me with a structural lens to examine art and culture, allowing me to create more convincing arguments and thorough analysis of historical phenomena in the realm of visual culture. As social beings, our actions, decisions, even our personalities, are steeped in generations of socialization and institutional conditioning. As I have progressed through my courses, I have become increasingly aware of this and confident in my ability to accurately analyze and vocalize such processes.
In the summer of 2024, I had the opportunity to intern at the Barnes Foundation, an educational institution and art museum in Philadelphia. While my tasks were more aligned with my studies as an art history major, I found that thinking sociologically was inevitable during my internship. Topics relating to the accessibility and representation of the museum and its art may all be approached through the contexts of sociology.
Moving from Merion, a suburb of Philadelphia, to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2012 presented the Barnes Foundation with the challenge of appealing to a much larger and more diverse population than in the past; one of their biggest goals is to become the most inclusive space possible. Of course, people are most likely to enter, and engage with, a space they feel comfortable and included in, and historically (and structurally!) speaking, the most “included” people in the museum space are white upper-class individuals. One of the most unique parts of the collection is also one of the biggest challenges faced by the Barnes: as a part of Dr. Barnes’ will, the collection cannot be altered or moved in any way. When trying to make a diverse audience feel represented and at home in a room full of paintings (largely) by dead white men, the institution must get creative. Given the circumstances, I believe their online “focus” interface that utilizes works as a sort of “entry point,” has provided a deeper understanding of the collection for a diverse audience.
Also, when considering a work of art, sociology is inherent: gender, race, class, and more are often depicted within one canvas, sculpture, or drawing. How many works of art containing a naked woman can you think of? A lot, probably. Why? What do they mean? What was the societal context that created the foundations for these works? While these questions can be answered through historical research, they can also be approached through a sociological lens. Being able to map continuity and change through time is a large part of being an art historian, specifically within the realm of visual culture. As previously stated, we cannot evade the societal contexts in which we are steeped, so these disciplines go hand in hand, reciprocally building off one another and strengthening the legitimacy of both of their claims. Theorists, such as Marx and Durkheim, have supplied me with theoretical frameworks to research and analyze artists, works, and movements, which serve as another tool in constructing a strong, valid thesis.
Of course, I did not just happen upon a sociological imagination on my own; each professor I have taken class with has challenged me to think of things through a lens which has become impossible to take off. As I move forward into graduate studies, I am grateful for my second major in sociology, as its flexibility, amenability, and tangibility has created a stronger base for me to approach academia in an interdisciplinary light. Not only have my academic studies been strengthened, but I have a better understanding of my own reality, and why things are the way that they are, from a more macro level. As someone who always seeks to understand the how and why, I feel as though a sociological mindset is invaluable.