Key Research Areas: Urban Gun Violence & Trauma • Street Culture • Women & Crime • Race, Class & Gender Inequality • Hard-to-Reach Populations • Participatory Action Research (PAR) • Critical & Applied Criminology • Qualitative & Mixed Methods
Brooklynn Hitchens, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. She is a sociologist who critically investigates how street-identified and justice-involved Black populations navigate 1) participation in crime, 2) risks for victimization, and 3) involvement with police. Hitchens often examines the experiences of Black women in urban and street contexts, offering a much-needed expansion of scholarship that traditionally centers men. Her work problematizes our understandings of urban violence, and explores how experiences of victimization and violent loss affect individuals' cultural behaviors, attitudes, and worldviews.
She employs Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR) methods, partnering with low-income Black communities as co-researchers, while emphasizing community-driven solutions to address violence and inequality. Her methodological expertise is qualitative, through the use of ethnography, interviews, and focus groups – and she also utilizes quantitative and mixed methods.
Hitchens is the co-author of the book Murdertown USA: Homicide, Structural Violence, and Activism in Wilmington (2023). Her scholarship has appeared in journals across multiple disciplines, including criminology, sociology, public health, and psychology.
Degrees
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Degree DetailsPh.D., Department of Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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Degree DetailsM.A., Department of Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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Degree DetailsB.A., Departments of Black American Studies and English, University of Delaware
CCJS370 Race, Crime and Criminal Justice
Dr. Hitchens is currently working on three research projects: 1) She is the Co-Project Director of a multi-neighborhood research team studying violence, health, and opportunity in Wilmington, DE; 2) She is a Project Director on a four-site research team studying high-risk gun carrying among Black youth ages in Philadelphia, Detroit, New York City, and Wilmington (DE); and 3) She is the Co-PI on a policing study assessing Black perceptions of and attitudes toward the Baltimore Police Department.
Dr. Hitchens advances scholarship that centers the lived experiences of marginalized Black Americans and elucidates how structural inequities influence criminal behavior and other disparate outcomes.
