Faculty/Staff Directory

Dr. Joel D. Lieberman
Department Chair
Dr. Joel Lieberman received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Arizona in 1997. His work focuses on the application of social psychological theories to criminal justice issues. His recent research has been in the areas of jury decision making, aggression and inter-group conflict. Lieberman has experience in professional consultation, has authored numerous publications, and is a member of the editorial board for several journals. He was also the recipient of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Outstanding Teacher Award.
E-mail: jdl@unlv.nevada.edu
Phone: 702-895-0249
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5144

Dr. Karu Hangawatte
Scholarship Coordinator
Dr. Karu Hangawatte received his LL.B. from the University of Ceylon, Colombo, in 1970 and his Ph.D. (with distinction) in criminal justice in 1984 from the State University of New York at Albany. He is an attorney-at-law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. His areas of interest include law and society, criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, legal method and process, terrorism and political violence, and the administration of criminal justice. He has been an assistant secretary of justice in Sri Lanka. Hangawatte served as a consultant to the United Nations and was commissioned to prepare several papers on crime prevention, victimology, transnational corporate abuses, and economic crime. He has also received several teaching awards at UNLV.
Website: http://faculty.unlv.edu/karu/
E-mail: Karu.hangawatte@unlv.edu
Phone: 702-895-0243
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5120

Dr. Margaret Alexis Kennedy
Internship Director
Dr. Alexis Kennedy received her LL.B. from the University of Manitoba, Canada, in 1993 and her Ph.D. in forensic psychology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, in 2004. Her areas of interest include child abuse, sexual assault, body image, and prostitution. Her doctoral dissertation on cross-cultural perceptions of child abuse won two American Psychological Association awards (Divisions 37 and 41).
Website: http://www.alexiskennedy.com
Internship Website: crjintern@gmail.com
E-mail: alexis.kennedy@unlv.edu
Phone: 702-895-5122
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5133

Dr. Hong Lu
Graduate Coordinator
Dr. Hong Lu's areas of interest include comparative criminology, policing, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and sociology of law. She coauthored two books - one, on comparative punishment, was published by Cambridge University Press, and the other, on China's death penalty, was published by Routledge. She also published more than two dozen journal articles and book chapters on comparative criminology, court and sentencing, and sociology of law. Lu is the recipient of several research grants at UNLV, including NIA, SITE, and RDA, and she has received the 2006 Barrick Award for the Outstanding Faculty Researcher at UNLV.
E-mail: hong.lu@unlv.edu
Phone: 702-895-0242
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5138

Dr. Tamara Madensen
Faculty Advisor, Alpha Phi Sigma
Dr. Tamara Madensen received her Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include environmental criminology, white-collar crime, place management, and situational crime prevention. She has authored scholarly articles, technical reports, and problem-oriented policing guides sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice. She has worked on several community police partnering projects, including serving as project director on an investigation of several open-air drug markets in Cincinnati. She is currently involved in evaluation efforts of crime reduction strategies in Las Vegas.
E-mail: Tamara.Madensen@unlv.edu
Phone: 702-895-5903
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5136

Dr. Terance Miethe
Dr. Terance Miethe received his Ph.D. in sociology from Washington State University in 1982. His areas of interest include criminology, law, deviance, quantitative methodology, and evaluation research. He is the author of several books and articles on violent crime, criminal sanctions, and crime typologies. He has received several awards and research grants and was the recipient of the 2005 Barrick Award for the Outstanding Researcher at UNLV.
E-mail: miethe@unlv.nevada.edu
Phone: 702-895-0248
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5137

Dr. Randall G. Shelden
Dr. Randall G. Shelden received his Ph.D. in sociology from the Southern Illinois University in 1976. He is also a senior research fellow with the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco. He received his master's degree in sociology at Memphis State University and Ph.D. in sociology at Southern Illinois University. He is the author or co-author of the following books: Criminal Justice in America: A Sociological Approach; Crime and Criminal Justice in American Society (co-authored with William B. Brown, Randal Fritzler and Karen Miller); Girls, Delinquency and Juvenile Justice (4th edition), with Meda Chesney-Lind (which received the Hindelang Award for outstanding contribution to Criminology in 1992); Youth Gangs in American Society 4th edition.), with Sharon Tracy and William B. Brown; Controlling the Dangerous Classes: The History of Criminal Justice (2nd edition); Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in American Society (2nd edition); Juvenile Justice in America: Problems and Prospects (co-edited with Daniel Macallair) and Our Punitive Society. He is also the author of more than 50 journal articles and book chapters on the subject of crime and justice. He has also written more than 100 commentaries appearing in local and regional newspapers. He was the recipient of the UNLV Alumni Award for Outstanding Teacher in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1992, and 1993. Also, he received the Outstanding Research Award for the College of Urban Affairs in 2006.
Website: www.sheldensays.com
E-mail: shelden@unlv.nevada.edu
Phone: 702-895-0251
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5140

Dr. William Sousa
Assistant Graduate Coordinator
Dr. William Sousa received his Ph.D. in criminal justice from Rutgers University in 2003. His research interests include police policy and management, community crime prevention, international policing, and research methods. His past projects include a national evaluation of the Department of Justice's Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP), an evaluation of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in Massachusetts, and an evaluation of crime-reduction policies implemented by the New York City Police Department. He is currently involved in investigations of violence reduction efforts in Las Vegas, Nevada.
E-mail: william.sousa@unlv.edu
Phone: 702-895-0247
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5132

Dr. Emily I. Troshynski
Dr. Troshynski received he Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California at Irvine, with a Graduate Emphasis in Gender and Feminist Studies. She is an interdisciplinary trained criminologist. Her research focuses on the intersections between deviance and social control (namely law), the politics of crime control, electronic monitoring and surveillance technology practices employed by the criminal justice system and the collateral consequences of criminalization. Professor Troshynski is also the Co-Editor of "The Critical Criminologists," the newsletter of the American Society of Criminology Division on Critical Criminology.
E-mail: emily.troshynski@unlv.edu
Phone: 702-895-0228
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5134

Kristine Hoffman
Administrative Assistant III
E-mail: kristine.hoffman@unlv.edu
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5146

Cameron Thomas
Student Worker
E-mail: cameron.thomas@unlv.edu
Office: Greenspun Hall (GUA) — Room 5150

Department of Criminal Justice
Hank Greenspun College of Urban Affairs
4505 S Maryland Pkwy
Box 455009
Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-5009
Main Office: 702-895-0236
crjdept@unlv.nevada.edu