O'Neill School at IU Indianapolis
801 West Michigan Street
BS 4056
Indianapolis, IN
46202
Biography
Dena Carson is an associate professor in the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis and serves as its director of criminal justice programs. Her research centers on topics such as youth violence, gangs, delinquent peer groups, school safety, victimization, program evaluation, and life-course criminology.
Dr. Carson has served as co-principal investigator on externally funded research supported by the National Institute of Justice and Arnold Ventures that explores the extent to which adolescent experiences have lasting effects into adulthood. That work includes a long-term follow-up of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program.
Dr. Carson’s research has been published in leading criminology and criminal justice journals, including Justice Quarterly, Criminal Justice & Behavior, Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice, Criminology & Public Policy, and the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology. She is also co-editor of the forthcoming volume Cross Cultural Perspectives on Gangs (Springer).
In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Carson serves as deputy editor of the Journal of Crime & Justice and has held leadership positions in several professional organizations, including the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), Midwestern Criminal Justice Association (MCJA), and the Eurogang Program of Research.
Education
- Ph.D., Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri–St. Louis, 2011
- M.A., Criminology, University of South Florida, 2007
- B.S., Chemistry, Pittsburg State University, 2003
Highlights
- Co-principal investigator on National Institute of Justice-funded longitudinal extension of the of the G.R.E.A.T. project
- Recipient of the IUI Research Trailblazer Award
- Serves on the editorial board for Criminal Justice & Behavior, Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice, as well as Deputy Editor of Journal of Crime & Justice
- Steering committee member and mailing list coordinator for the Eurogang Program of Research
- Recipient, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Tory J. Caeti Young Scholar Memorial Award. (2019)
Selected Intellectual Contributions
- "Cross Cultural Prospectives on Gangs," (with M. Urbanik and S. Reid (Editors)) Springer (2026)
- "Understanding the Role of Violence and Conflict in the Stages of Gang Membership," (with J. Michael Vecchio) Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice (2023)
- "A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a School-Based Prescription Opioid Misuse Education Program," (with E.B. Lane) Journal of Drug Education (2022)
- "Do Psychopathic Traits Distinguish Between Trajectories of Gang Membership?," (with J. Ray) Criminal Justice and Behavior (2019)
- "Gangs in school: Exploring the experiences of gang-involved youth," (with F. Esbensen) Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice (2019)