August 15, 2007 —Professor Robert Langworthy has joined the college as chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies.
He was previously a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, from 1997 to 2007. During his tenure, he served as director of the Justice Center and the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center. He also held a 14-month assignment as director of the Crime Control and Prevention Division at the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C.
From 1987 to 1997, Langworthy was a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, where he was instrumental in the development of the university’s doctoral program in criminal justice. From 1983 to 1987, he was an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
He is an accomplished researcher and author, with interests in comparative police organizations, police use of force, evaluation of police practices, environmental criminology and the spatial analysis of crime. He has written four books, including Policing in America: A Balance of Forces, now in its fourth edition, and many articles and monographs on justice issues. He has also served as a grant reviewer for the NIJ and on the editorial boards of several journals, including Justice Quarterly.
Langworthy earned a doctorate and master’s degree in criminal justice at the State University of New York at Albany and a master’s degree in geography from Mankato State College in Minnesota.
"I look forward to the continued development of the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies," he said. "I hope to be instrumental in building the department’s capacity for both community engagement and community-relevant research by developing doctoral study within the department and establishing a research center focused on community explanations of crime and justice."
