University Professor; J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Endowed Chair in Communities and Crime
(205) 934-2069
UBOB 440C
Research Interests: Community engagement, affects of the built environment on people's neighborhoods and crime, police law, computer forensics, and investigations
Teaching Interests: Policing; Research Methods in Criminal Justice
Office Hours: By appointment
Education:
- BSBA, University of Arkansas, Management and Computer Systems
- MA, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Criminal Justice
- PhD, Sam Houston State University, Criminal Justice
I am originally from a very small town (about 6,000) in Arkansas. I grew up on a beef farm. I am retired from the military, serving active duty and reserve for 23 years. After getting by BA in business management/computers, I joined the Army. I had an opportunity to go back to graduate school and went into criminal justice. That is when I found my passion for what I wanted to do in life.
I was fascinated by all the things I could study relatred to crime, justice, and how they interconnect urban environments (both good and bad) to influence how people live their lives. I have studied a lot of different areas over the years, most recently public health in disadvantaged neighborhoods. I came to understand the urban built environment is a complex system and cannot be changed by attempting to change just one area. This lead to my development of a theory of neighborhood change based on chaos theory, published in Justice Quarterly as my presidential address for the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Getting my PhD was one of the best things I ever did. It opened so many great doors for me. I was called back to active duty after 9/11 and spent a good part of the next three years doing counterterrorism and counterintellihgence work. During that time, I also started doing computer forensic work. In sum, I have a fairly eclectic background.
Download Curriculum Vitae Opens a PDF. Scholars ProfileOpens an external link.
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Research Interests
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 research at that time, which I still do. My longest two books concern police law, and 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 and the social, mental, and physical health of residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods. 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 links to my research because 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 and geospatial analyses. 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 we have known 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, the influence of the environment on health, working side-by-side with residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods to make positive change, and more.
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Current/Past Graduate Students
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.
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Recent Courses
- HC 130-How Cities Influence Our Lives
- CJ 463/563 "Urban Structures
- CJ 460/560 Violence: An American Tradition
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Select Publications
- Grant Drawve, Jeffery T. Walker, and Marcus Felson, “Juvenile Distance-to-Crime and Hot Spots,” Cartography and Geographic Information Science 42 (No. 2, 2015):122-133.
- Rolando del Carmen, Rolando and Jeffery T. Walker. 2025. Briefs of Leading Cases in Law Enforcement, Eleventh Edition. New York, NY: Routledge Publishing. First Edition, 1991; Reprint with revisions, 1993; Second Edition, 1995; Third Edition, 1997; Fourth Edition, 2000; Fifth Edition, 2004; Sixth Edition, 2006; Seventh Edition, 2008 Eighth Edition, 2012; Ninth Edition, 2015; 10th Edition, 2020.
- Kyle A. Burgason and Jeffery T. Walker, “Optimal Foraging Theory’s Application to Internet Sex Offender Search Behavior: A Theoretical Model for Computer Forensic Investigations.” Journal of Forensic Investigations 1 (No. 1, 2013):1-6.
- Shaun Thomas, Stacy C. Moak, and Jeffery T. Walker, “The Contingent Effect of Race in Juvenile Court Detention Decisions: The Role of Racial and Symbolic Threat,” Race and Justice 3 (No. 3, 2013):252-269.
- Jeffery T. Walker and Sean Maddan, Statistics in Criminal Justice and Criminology: Analysis and Interpretation, Fourth Edition (Jones and Bartlett, 2012).
- Sean Maddan, J. Mitchell Miller, Jeffery T. Walker, and Ineke H. Marshall. “Utilizing Criminal History Information to Explore the Effect of Community Notification on Sex Offender Recidivism,” Justice Quarterly 28 (No. 2, 2011):303-324.
- Bob E. Vásquez, Sean Maddan, and Jeffery T. Walker, “The Influence of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws in the United States: A Time Series Analysis,” Crime and Delinquency 54 (No. 2, 2008):175-192.
- Jeffery T. Walker, “Advancing Science and Research in Criminal Justice/Criminology: Complex Systems Theory and Non-Linear Analyses,” Justice Quarterly 24 (No. 4, 2007):555-581.
- Jeffery T. Walker, “Eliminate Residency Restrictions For Sex Offenders,” Criminology & Public Policy 6 (No. 4, 2007):863-870.
- Dierenfeldt, Rick, Shaun A. Thomas, Timothy C. Brown, and Jeffery T. Walker. 2021. “Street Culture and Gun Violence: Exploring the Reputation–Victimization Paradox.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(1-2): 552-578
- Cannon, Robert M., Ariann Nassel, Jeffery T. Walker, Saulat S. Sheikh, Babak J. Orandi, Raymond J. Lynch. 2022. “Lost Potential and Miss Opportunities for DCD Liver Transplantation in the United States.” American Journal of Surgery. 224(3):990-998, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2022.05.001.
- Warner, Tara D., Lindsay Leban, Danielle A. Pester, and Jeffery T. Walker. 2022. Contextualizing Adverse Childhood Experiences: The Intersections of Individual and Community Adversity. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52:570-584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01713-2.
- Chichester, Keith, Grant Drawve, Michelle, L Sisson, Gimenez-Santana Alejandro, Brandi McCleskey, Burel Goodin, Sylvie Mrug, Jeffery T. Walker, Karen L. Cropsey. 2023. Crime and features of the built environment predicting risk of fatal overdose: A comparison of rural and urban Ohio counties with risk terrain modeling. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 49:230-254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-023-09739-3.
- Gajos, J. M., Gimenez-Santana, A., Walker, J. T., Cropsey, K. L., Walters, S. T., & Businelle, M. S. 2024. Using risk terrain modeling and geographically-explicit ecological momentary assessments to examine alcohol use in adults experiencing homelessness. Journal of Crime and Justice, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2024.2396406.
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Academic Distinctions & Professional Memberships
- Faculty Excellence in Research, University of Arkansas, 2010
University award based on national panel examination of faculty research. - Founder’s Award, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, 2010
National/international award given annually for outstanding contribution to criminal justice/criminology - Mentor of the Year, American Society of Criminology, 2001
National award given annually to the person voted by students as the best mentor in the American Society of Criminology - President, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, 2006 - 2007
- President, Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice, 1994 - 1995
- Member, American Society of Criminology, 1992 - Present
- Faculty Excellence in Research, University of Arkansas, 2010