People at RCPS

 

 

RCPS associates are experts in their fields and innovators in their methods of applied research.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Center for Law & Justice

Fifth Floor

123 Washington Street

Newark, NJ 07102

© 2009-2011 RCPS

Updated November 27, 2011

Leslie W. Kennedy

Ph.D. (1975) Univ. of Toronto
Director

CV

Specialization
Public Security, Victimization, Theory

Brief Biography
Leslie W. Kennedy, University Professor, is a member of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice and the Core Faculty in the Division of Global Affairs. He is the author or co-author of 15 books and over 50 research articles and chapters. He is the co-author with Vince Sacco of The Criminal Event, appearing in its 5th edition this year. In this book he advocates a holistic approach to the study of crime in social context. He and Erin Van Brunschot have just completed a new book, The Risk in Crime (2009, Rowman and Littlefield) , that explores the use of risk in criminological theory and research. Applying these ideas, working with Joel Caplan, Joel Miller, Jie Xu, and others, he is pursuing empirical work in research on drug markets and shootings in the Newark region.

Extending his approach to public security from a global perspective, Dr. Kennedy has published (with Cynthia Lum and Alison Sherley) an extensive review of counter-terrorism studies in the Journal of Experimental Criminology. He is the co-author, with Erin E. Gibbs Van Brunschot, of Risk Balance and Security (2008, Sage), a book that examines how risk is assessed by agencies faced with major hazards including crime, terrorism, environmental disaster and disease. He is extending this work (with Ed McGarrell) to examine risk management, particularly in the context of the globalization of these hazards, culminating in a forthcoming edited book from Routledge. In addition, he is involved in work on global risk assessment (with Joel Caplan, Nerea Marteache, and Yasemin Gaziarifoglu), in collaboration with the UN Global Pulse program, examining how risk assessment applies to enhancing global security.

Joel M. Caplan

Ph.D. (2008) Univ. of Pennsylvania
Associate Director

CV

Specialization
Parole, Policing, GIS, Behavioral Geography, Computational Criminology

Brief Biography
Dr. Caplan is Assistant Professor at the School of Criminal Justice. Before joining the Rutgers faculty in 2008, Dr. Caplan was at the University of Pennsylvania Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML). Dr. Caplan specializes in collaborating with faculty in various disciplines to integrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis into research, evaluation and strategic decision-making. Projects concerned such topics as juvenile gun violence, emergency medical services, disaster management, mental illness, prisoner reentry, and crime control. One particular area of research currently of interest to Dr. Caplan is computational criminology, which joins advanced theories in criminology with theories and methods in mathematics, computing science, geography and behavioral psychology. It is a multidisciplinary approach that takes the strengths of several disciplines and builds new methods and techniques for the analysis of crime and crime patterns.

In addition to his academic accomplishments, Dr. Caplan has professional experience as a police officer and emergency medical technician. Through his combined knowledge of theory, research methods and practice, he strives to develop effective and sustainable solutions to contemporary social problems and disseminate his findings to a variety of scholars and practitioners. As part of this ongoing effort, Dr. Caplan has consulted on separate (and repeat) occasions the New Jersey State Police, State Parole Board, Attorney General’s Office, and the Director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy about the use of GIS for decision support and operational management. He was recently a Keynote speaker at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Prisoner Reentry Initiative.

 Dr. Caplan has received multiple awards for interdisciplinary innovation and, in 2007, the North East Map Organization (NEMO) recognized him as the Map Design Competition winner for his GIS work entitled “Parole Officer Caseload Distributions.”

Senior Fellow

Norman Samuels (CV | samuelsn@newark.rutgers.edu)

Ph.D. Duke University

Dr. Samuels recently returned to the faculty after serving for three decades in senior University administrative roles. His research interests are in the fields of terrorism and counter-terrorism, security and intelligence studies, and the intersection of international terrorism and crime, and in particular, the interface among these topics and the American system of government. He teaches courses and advises graduate students in these areas. He is University Professor and Provost Emeritus.

Research Associates

Mark Anarumo (mark.anarumo@yahoo.com)
Ph.D. (2005) Rutgers University
Dissertation Topic: Terrorist Threat Forecasting
Mark Anarumo earned his PhD in Criminal Justice in 2005 from Rutgers Graduate School-Newark. His dissertation topic was terrorist threat forecasting, a topic sponsored by the United States Air Force Fellowship Program. Mark is currently serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF Security Forces and is stationed at Kunsan Air Base, Gunsan City, Republic of Korea. During his 20-year career he has worked in the United States and several foreign nations including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. In these positions Mark has served as Chief of Anti-Terrorism, Chief of Police, and Chief of Information Protection, protecting United States interests and personnel from terrorism, crime, and cyber attacks. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and three-time graduate of Rutgers University.

Paul Boxer (pboxer@rutgers.edu)
Ph.D. (2002) Bowling Green State University
Dr. Boxer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers-Newark, and Adjunct Research Scientist in the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan. He is a clinical-developmental psychologist whose work focuses on the development of antisocial behavior and the impact on child and adolescent development of violence and crime in the social ecology. Boxer has been PI or Co-PI on projects examining various aspects of violence and youth development funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Centers for Disease Control. He has published extensively on prevention and intervention approaches for youth aggression, violence, and delinquency, and co-edited Treating the Juvenile Offender (2008, Guilford).

Renee Graphia Joyal

Ph.D. (2010) Rutgers University

In addition to being an RCPS associate, Renee Graphia Joyal is set to begin a Postdoctoral Fellowship appointment at Rutgers Command, Control and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA), a DHS Center of Excellence. Her primary research interests are fusion centers, risk and security studies, law enforcement intelligence and counterterrorism activities.

Jeff Mellow (jmellow@jjay.cuny.edu)

Jeff Mellow is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice. He is a Project Team Member of the National Institute of Corrections’ Transition from Jail to the Community Project, Site Director in Manhattan for the Office of National Drug Council Policy’s Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program, and a member of the Bergen County, NJ Health Services Advisory Committee. His research interests are primarily focused on improving public safety and public health through successful offender reentry. Dr. Mellow is co-author of The Jail Administrator’s Toolkit for Reentry and has recently been published in Crime and Delinquency, Psychiatric Services, Journal of Criminal Justice, and The Prison Journal.

Joel Miller (CV | joelmi@andromeda.rutgers.edu)

Ph.D. (2002) University of Surrey

Dr. Miller has spent much of his career carrying out research in applied criminal justice settings, including six years working in the British Home Office and five years at the Vera Institute of Justice. He has led studies on a range of criminal justice topics, including police accountability, racial profiling, police corruption, juvenile delinquency, recidivism, alternatives to incarceration, and crime reduction and prevention.

Eric L. Piza (eric.piza@gmail.com)

Eric Piza has served as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist for the Newark Police Department since February 2007. He is responsible for the agency’s day to day GIS and research activities. In an effort to expand the benefits of GIS technology, Eric designed and maintains a department wide GIS network, which allows decision makers with little-to-no knowledge of GIS to utilize spatial data. He also provides technical assistance to the Department’s partnering agencies.

     Previously, Eric spent 6 years at the Police Institute, a community policing think tank established by world renowned criminologist George Kelling, first as the GIS Analyst and then the Research Program Coordinator. Eric conducted research on various criminal justice issues for agencies such as the City of Newark, NJ, the Township of Irvington, NJ, the NJ State Police, the Essex County Parole Board, and the Juvenile Justice Commission.

     Eric is currently working towards a PhD at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice. His research interests include Spatial Analysis, Intelligence led Policing, Environmental Criminology, Criminal Justice Policy, and the use of academic research by practitioners.
 

Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot (begibbsv@ucalgary.ca)

Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary. Her primary research interests are in the realms of crime, security and risk, with specific interests in how individual, organization and state orientations to related issues both diverge and converge. In 2008, she authored Risk Balance and Security (Sage) with Les Kennedy. She is presently co-authoring a book entitled, Risk in Crime (Rowman and Littlefield) with Les Kennedy.

Research Assistants

Sevki Eldivan

Yasemin Gaziarifoglu

Mark Kapengut

Rahmi Kirkpanir

Nerea Marteache

William Moreto

Gohar Petrossian

Danielle M. Rusnak

Heather Tubman-Carbone

Jie Xu