Victim Researcher Profile

BIO

Barry Ruback is a professor of Criminology and Sociology at Penn State University. He received a B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the State Bar Associations of Texas and Georgia and has been a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute of Justice and a Judicial Fellow of the Supreme Court of the United States, assigned to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He is currently a Bureau of Justice Statistics Visiting Fellow, doing research on juvenile victimization and offending. Dr. Ruback has written several studies on victims’ decision to report or not to report crimes to the police, including research on the role of others in providing information, normative advice, and social support to victims. He has also published research on juvenile and adult victimization and repeat victimization (burglary, sexual assault, assault) and on the victim-offender overlap. With regard to victim restitution, he has surveyed victims and has published experimental research testing how to increase offenders’ payment of the restitution they owe to victims. Dr. Ruback has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing. His books include After the Crime: Victim Decision Making, Interpersonal Violent Behavior: Social and Cultural Aspects, and Social and Psychological Consequences of Violent Victimization. Website: http://sociology.la.psu.edu/people/rbr3

VICTIMIZATION FOCUS

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

Child victims, Rural victims

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

Data collection, Quantitative studies, Quasi-experimental studies, Randomized controlled trial

VICTIM RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Data collection, Quantitative studies, Randomized controlled trial