Scholars in Residence

The Department of Criminology is looking forward to the visit of Heith Copes.

Heith Copes is a Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He uses qualitative methods and narrative theory to examine drug use and crime. A large portion of his research addresses the criminal decision-making strategies of people who engage in various types of crime, including carjacking, auto theft, identity theft, bar fights, meth cooking, and drug use. His research in this area addresses such issues as motivations for committing their crimes, pathways into crime, techniques to enact the crime, and strategies to minimize risk. A larger contributions of this research is on how aspects of decision-making (e.g., excuse making, risk reduction, social connections) contributes to people prolonging their criminal careers. Currently, he uses photo-elicitation methods to better understand how people make sense of their lives and crimes.

The Department of Criminology is happy to have Prof. Dr. Wade Jacobsen (University of Maryland) as Scholar in Residence.

Wade Jacobsen is an associate professor at the University of Maryland in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and also affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center and Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center.
His research examines how the development of risky behaviors in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood is shaped by interactions with institutions (e.g., schools, criminal legal system) and social networks. His current work examines the consequences of punishment for the social exclusion of young people from normative relationships and institutions.

In 2024, he spent six months as a scholar in residence at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law where he began a collaboration with Jean-Louis van Gelder on the Partners in Crime project, which use virtual reality technology to examine the influence of peers on antisocial behavior.

The Department of Criminology is delighted to welcome Prof. Marcus Felson (Texas State University) as its first Scholar in Residence.

Marcus Felson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Texas State University and has served as Professor at the Uni­ver­sity of Illinois, Uni­ver­sity of Southern California and Rutgers Uni­ver­sity. He originated and developed the routine activity approach to crime analysis. He authored or co-authored Crime and Everyday Life, Crime and Nature, and Opportunity Makes the Thief. He was trained at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. He resides in Austin, Texas. Marcus is interested in measuring and theorizing about crime that occurs outdoors and about policing public places. He emphasizes growing evidence that middle-class residential areas export a good deal of crime outside their own neighborhoods and that entertainment districts import a good deal of crime from suburban areas.

During his stay at the Criminology Department, Professor Felson continues to work on everyday routines affecting crime levels, crime effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the importance of outdoor crime. He will give several talks, impart his wisdom, and give solicited and unsolicited advice to MPI researchers.