Victim Researcher Profile

BIO

Dr. Christina Mancini's scholarship seeks to contribute to efforts to improve public safety and enhance crime prevention. Specifically, her research centers on understanding the emergence and efficacy of contemporary crime laws, with a particular emphasis on criminal victimization. She has published over 35 peer-reviewed studies in the areas of sex crime, victimization, campus crime, public opinion, and law. Her work is featured in respected journals such as Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Criminology, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the Journal of Criminal Justice, Crime & Delinquency, and other outlets. She is the author of the scholarly book, Sex Crime, Offenders, and Society: A Critical Look at Sexual Offending and Policy (2014, Carolina Academic Press). Her second text, Campus Crime and Safety (Kendall Hunt), was published in 2015. Dr. Mancini's research has been nationally recognized and she is the recipient of many awards and honors. In 2014, she was given the Faculty Researcher of the Year Award by the American Society of Criminology, Division of Victimology. She is also the 2015 recipient of the Wilder School Excellence in Scholarship Award. Professor Mancini's expertise has been featured in national and local print and television news outlets such as the Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), Knoxville News Sentinel, Style Weekly, Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas Tribune, and the Sun-Sentinel. In 2015, she co-founded the Sexual Offense Policy Research (SOPR) Workgroup, an international organization dedicated to improving policy responses toward sexual offending and victimization (http://www.sopresearch.org/). She currently serves as an editorial advisory board member for Criminal Justice Policy Review and the Journal of Criminal Justice. At Virginia Commonwealth University, she teaches a variety of courses related to her expertise and serves as the Assistant Chair of the Criminal Justice Program in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. She has supervised or currently supervises several undergraduate and graduate students on research projects such as independent studies, theses, and dissertations. In the community, she is a frequent lecturer at community events (most recently, the Virginia General Assembly; http://vcoy.virginia.gov/FISagendaforPublicupdated.pdf) related to addressing sexual abuse, assault, and violent crime.

VICTIMIZATION FOCUS

Campus Sexual Assault, Other Campus Crime, Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse, Sexual Abuse or Violence (other than campus sexual assault), Trafficking in Persons

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

Child victims, Victims with disabilities, LGBTQ victims, Male victims generally, Military personnel victims, Immigrants and refugees, Urban high crime neighborhood victims

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Data collection, Descriptive studies, Qualitative studies, Quantitative studies

VICTIM RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Needs assessment, Program evaluation, Quasi-experimental studies