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Research
My research broadly relates to several facets of violence - the causes and correlates of violence, police response to violence, and violence reduction and prevention. I am particularly interested in variation in rates of homicide, violence, and crime clearance across time and space and how structural conditions, such as concentrated disadvantage, and social mechanisms, such as collective efficacy, contribute to these patterns.
Dissertation
My dissertation assesses several prominent explanations for changes in U.S. homicide rates since the 1960s, including the spike in homicides in the late 1980s and the unanticipated "Great American Crime Decline" in the 1990s. Explanations considered include changes in economic conditions, family structure, age structure, immigration, incarceration, policing, drug markets, and firearm prevalence and legislation.
Teaching
Teaching qualifications and experience include courses related to: Criminal Justice, Criminology, Violence, Homicide, Communities and Crime, Punishment and Social Control, Research Methods, and Statistics.
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Graduate teaching experience also includes advanced statistics courses, such as multi-level and longitudinal modeling, linear regression, and discrete outcomes regression.
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news &
announcements
November 2018
Ashley has accepted a tenure track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina to begin Fall 2018.
December 2016
Proposed dissertation research wins University of Delaware Office of Graduate and Professional Education Dissertation Fellowship Award (2017-2018)
August 2015
Master's Thesis wins Richard Block Award for Outstanding Thesis Research (2015)
