The Criminology Academy

Professor Fiona Brookman is a Professor of Criminology at the Centre for Criminology at the University of South Wales. She is one of the leading researchers on homicide investigation in the UK, with a body of work that spans offender narratives, detective decision-making, and the use of forensic science and technology in criminal investigations. She has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork inside live homicide investigations, giving her rare and extraordinary access to how these cases actually unfold

Dr. Faith Deckard is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California – Los Angeles. Currently, she is examining how commercial bail entangles families in a complicated economic and social system of obligation, debt, and punishment. Faith received her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2024. As a researcher, her interest lies in understanding how marginalized groups experience and respond to social control institutions.

Dr. Tara Richards is the David Scott Diamond Alumni Professor of Public Affairs and Community Service and Co-Director of the Victimology and Victim Studies Research Lab in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her research and teaching focuses on prevention, intervention, and system responses to sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and child abuse and neglect.

William J. Schultz is an assistant professor of criminology at MacEwan University in the department of Sociology. He received his MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of Alberta. Will’s research interests center on the life experiences of incarcerated people, the influence of fentanyl and other drugs on prison environments, gangs and radical ideological groups in prison, and how correctional officer cultures impact the daily operations of prisons.

This month, some of Jenn's graduate students take over the podcast and question Jenn and Jose about various topics!