Explore UAB

My research interests have varied over the years. When I was in my PhD program, my primary focus was on police tactics (use of deadly force, patrolling tactics, etc.). I started doing a lot of police law work at that time, which I still do. I have two books that are used by a number of police agencies for parts of their promotion tests. For a while, I was doing a lot of work studying sex offenders and their characteristics. I have been able to testify before the legislatures in different states on the good and bad of sex offender behavior. This was also helped by my work in computer forensics, which often deals with sex offender investigations.

The area of research that has been my core over the years is the study of neighborhoods, especially as it relates to crime. Most people do not realize how much criminology has to do with neighborhoods. Right now, I am doing a lot of work with food deserts in inner cities. This is where people do not have access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat; and often have to do their grocery shopping from a convenience store. This is a part of criminology because it negatively affects people. It may also have a link with crime since we know that people who do not have good nutrition have a variety of physical and mental issues. I also do a lot of mapping of crime. Since the 1920s, criminology has examined the distribution of crime in a city. I do a lot of research looking at where criminals live, the conditions of where they live, and the movement of crime in a city.

My current work is using chaos theory to examine crime and neighborhood characteristics. We have known for over a century that there is a relationship between crime and deteriorated areas. And we know that neighborhoods decline over time, from the newest-great places to live to the “bad” parts of town. But we know little about how that happens because our ways of examining this decline are too limited. I am looking for new statistics and new methods of researching crime and neighborhood change that can overcome these problems. This is allowing me to bring all of my research interests together: neighborhood characteristics and change, the distribution of crime, police tactics, criminal behavior, and more.

Over twenty years, I have had many graduate students move to very successful carriers. My former graduate students are now police officers and chiefs of police, agents for federal law enforcement agencies (FBI, US Fish and Wildlife, etc.), and in jobs across many disciplines. I have also graduated or sent or sent on over 20 graduates students to PhD programs who are now Professors in Criminal Justice, Criminology, or Sociology.