Faculty

Interests

Dr. Bakhitah Abdul-Ra’uf is a Socio-Cultural and Applied Anthropologist, and Associate Professor of Criminal Justice. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. Her research interest includes Police-Community Relations, Social Justice Mediation (training certificate, U of Mass, Amherst), Shari’a (Islamic Law) and Comparative Criminal Justice Systems. She has worked with the police in Virginia and Florida where she conducted ethnographic studies. The Florida study included attending the police academy as a full participant observer. She has also observed the Auckland New Zealand Police while living with a Maori (indigenous population) family. Dr. Abdul-Ra’uf has observed both the Finnish Police in Joensuu, Finland, and students/recruits at the Police College of Finland in Tampere, Finland. While at the Police College of Finland, she presented research that she conducted with the Blacksburg, VA Police Department. Graduate courses taught include, Social Awareness, Qualitative Research Methods and a number of seminars including, Understanding Police Organizations.

Recent Professional Activities

Dr. Abdul-Ra’uf recently authored The Blacksburg VA Police Department: A Model of Professionalism and Social Justice in the Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal.  This publication is based on her most recent ethnographic research project which focused on police subculture, emphasizing the socially defined role of the police in Blacksburg, VA. The research also examined the training and socialization process which conceptualizes the life style or role of the police officer from their points of view, their definitions of reality, and the conditions that promote favorable relations within the community. The significance of the study was to focus on street level or patrol officers, and resided in efforts to identify Social Justice issues that create and nurture favorable relations between the police and communities in general.  The goal of the project was to describe, using an ethnographic approach, the police occupational subculture as it relates to current police training and practices, the relationship between the police and the community, and a comparison of practices relating to police-community practices between Blacksburg Police (small college town) practices and that of a previous ethnography conducted by Dr. Abdul-Ra’uf of the police in a mid-size city. Having gone through a police academy in Florida as a recruit, Dr. Abdul-Ra’uf was accepted not just as a ride along and observer, but as someone who could relate to the general subculture of the police.  Dr. Abdul-Ra’uf continues her relationship with the Blacksburg Police Department as she and Sgt. Kale Craver are currently examining municipal and police leadership.  Additional information about professional activities is available on Dr. Abdul-Ra'uf's vita.

Interests

Dr. Bolin's current research interests include a variety of issues related to juvenile justice and delinquency, including juvenile corrections, delinquency prevention, drug use, and victimization.

Recent Professional Activities

Dr. Bolin has been working on projects in a number of different research areas. Her work with Dr. Pate on undergraduate substance use has led to two publications; one with former undergraduate student Jenna McClintock exploring the impact of substance use among college students was published in The Social Science Journal and another examining the impact of strain on non-medical prescription drug use was accepted for publication in the Journal of Drug Issues.  Additionally, she had an article entitled, “Drug use and abuse as primary motivators for male and female involvement in burglary: A comparison of self-reported differences among a random sample of male and female burglars” published in the Journal of Drug Issues.  Dr. Bolin also has had two publications recently accepted for publication in The Journal of Crime and Justice and Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research.  Dr. Bolin’s current projects involve the professional orientation of probation and parole officers as well as public opinion of blended sentencing.

Interests

Dr. Elis' research interests include gender and crime, developmental theories of crime, domestic violence, and the examination of patterns of sentencing disparity in Virginia.

Recent Professional Activities

Dr. Elis' recent professional activities include publications in the areas of police responses to domestic violence, restorative justice, and an empirical test of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime.

Interests

Dr. Green's research explores rural crime, with a focus on wildlife crime and wildlife law enforcement; he also conducts research on illicit liquor manufacturing and distribution.

Recent Professional Activities

Dr. Green recently authored an article titled Culture Conflict Between Moonshiners and the Government: An Explanation of Jury Nullification and Nolle Prosequi in Illicit Alcohol Offenses in Rural Communities that was published in the International Journal of Rural Criminology. This is the first academic research article addressing illicit moonshine to ever be published in a criminological journal. He also authored an article titled Judging the Effectiveness of Anti-Poaching Hotlines that is published in the Journal of Rural Social Sciences. Dr. Green recently finished revisions to the 8^th edition of The Police Manager. He is conducting fieldwork on wildlife crime during the fall 2017 semester. 

Interests

Dr. Pate has several distinct areas of research. One of Dr. Pate's research interests include the decision-making process that begins with the apprehension of a suspect all the way to conviction for the various actors in the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, attorneys, and jurors, specifically decisions about evidence and perceptions of guilt. Dr. Pate also conducts research on various teaching practices and the influence of these practices on student engagement and academic performance. Finally, Dr. Pate is also interested in issues of substance use among undergraduate students, including both the causes and consequences of such use.

Recent Professional Activities

Dr. Pate presented findings from two recent research projects on jurors’ use and comprehension of genetic evidence in a criminal trial at the American Society of Criminology conference in Philadelphia in November 2017. Dr. Pate has also recently published articles in each of her research areas, in journals such as Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, and The Social Science Journal.

PROFESSOR OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Co-Director, Center for police practice, policy and research

INTERESTS

Dr. 'Shawn Smith is a criminologist and assistant professor specializing in traditional and contemporary ecological crime modeling and public policy development.  Within these scopes, his recent research and pedagogy includes urban-to-rural comparisons in crime theory (U.S. and international), emerging technologies in criminal justice, and digital victimization (e.g., cybercrime).

RECENT PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Dr. Smith is a regular participant of several national and international conferences, and regularly mentors both undergraduate and graduate students in the pursuit of their respective research interests.  Of late, Dr. Smith has also been active in unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) implementation and literacy for criminal justice students and practitioners both on campus and the surrounding New River Valley community.