Brooklynn Hitchens, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. She is a sociologist and critical criminologist who studies race, class and gender inequities in urban violent crime and trauma, along with urban policing. Using participatory action research (PAR) methods, she partners with low-income Black communities to reduce racial disparities in gun violence and other forms of crime. Her work is primarily qualitative, through the use of ethnography, interviews, and focus groups – and she also utilizes mixed methods.

Areas of Interest

  • Race, Class & Gender in Crime & Victimization
  • Urban Gun Violence & Trauma
  • Communities & Crime
  • Black Female Survivors of Violence
  • Participatory Action Research (PAR)
  • Qualitative & Mixed Methods
Personal Website
Personal Website

Degrees

  • Degree Details
    Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Degree Details
    M.A., Department of Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Degree Details
    B.A., Departments of Black American Studies and English, University of Delaware
CCJS225 Responses to Violence
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.

Current Students

Former Students

Brooklynn Hitchens
Email
hitchens [at] umd.edu