Tamara Madensen with students, Stacey Clouse and Logan Kennedy, by T-Mobile arena

Department of Criminal Justice News

The Department of Criminal Justice provides undergraduate and graduate degree programs designed to give students comprehensive understanding of the nature and causes of crime. Our students also learn about the criminal justice processes, criminal justice organizations and agency practices, and the law and legal system.

Current Criminal Justice News

UNLV XMAS
Campus News |

This month’s frosty headlines and highlights from the students and faculty of UNLV.

unlv pumpkins
Campus News |

A monthly roundup of the top news stories at UNLV, featuring the presidential election, gaming partnerships, and much more.

couple at desk filled with holiday cards
UNLV History |

Faculty/staff donations to the annual holiday card tree fund have been providing scholarships for over 50 years.

Graphic with words on screen, The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids Around the World
Business and Community |

Brookings Mountain West and UNLV health care and criminal justice faculty experts partner with Washington think tank on podcast series addressing the opioid abuse epidemic.
 

portrait of man
Campus News |

Juan Rubio Pulido joins the first cohort of TheDream.US scholars to graduate from UNLV.

Students in red caps and gowns walk out of an arena in front of a red Rebels Make It Happen sign
People |

The class of 2023 offers inspiration for current Rebels on how to make the most of the journey from student to alumnus.

Criminal Justice In The News

New York Times

The economy has been the primary concern among voters in Nevada, according to polls. Still, voters have seen many campaign ads trying to link immigration with crime.

Brookings

In the final episode of The Killing Drugs, host Vanda Felbab-Brown speaks with Dr. Lisa Durette and Dr. Alexis Kennedy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, about the impact of the fentanyl and opioid epidemics on young people. They explore risk factors leading to substance use disorders among the young, including developmental vulnerabilities, the social environment, and trauma and abuse. They discuss the challenges in identifying opioid use in adolescents, how to have conversations with young people about drugs, and the importance of community and family involvement in prevention. Finally, they explore treatment and other drug support services available to young people or their lack of, including in the juvenile justice system.

Brookings

In the final episode of The Killing Drugs, host Vanda Felbab-Brown speaks with Dr. Lisa Durette and Dr. Alexis Kennedy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, about the impact of the fentanyl and opioid epidemics on young people. They explore risk factors leading to substance use disorders among the young, including developmental vulnerabilities, the social environment, and trauma and abuse. They discuss the challenges in identifying opioid use in adolescents, how to have conversations with young people about drugs, and the importance of community and family involvement in prevention. Finally, they explore treatment and other drug support services available to young people or their lack of, including in the juvenile justice system.

KLAS-TV: 8 News Now

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and Nevada State Police are working on a first-of-its-kind partnership focusing on the mental health of troopers. It’s all about managing stress to improve their personal and professional lives.

Police1

The UNLV Tourist Safety Institute launched an eight-week emergency responder resilience program in August, designed to help Nevada State Police Highway Patrol officers improve their social and emotional wellness. The training focuses on mindfulness, emotional regulation, attention control, and maintaining effective interpersonal relationships to help officers manage the stresses of their profession.

Police1

The UNLV Tourist Safety Institute launched an eight-week emergency responder resilience program in August, designed to help Nevada State Police Highway Patrol officers improve their social and emotional wellness. The training focuses on mindfulness, emotional regulation, attention control, and maintaining effective interpersonal relationships to help officers manage the stresses of their profession.

Criminal Justice Experts

An expert in behavioral cybersecurity.
An expert in crime science, crime prevention, and crowd management
A criminologist with expert knowledge of police order-maintenance practices, police management, and community crime prevention.
An expert on jury decision making, intergroup conflict, and police use of social media and technology. 
An expert on women and crime, social justice, intersectionality, re-entry, surveillance, violence, and victimization.
An expert in trauma, child abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, domestic violence, and juvenile delinquency.

Recent Criminal Justice Accomplishments

Alexa Bejinariu (Criminal Justice) was selected as a Faculty Fellow with the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton University for the 2024-25 academic year.  
Alexandra Nur (Criminal Justice) published an article, "Visits as a Catalyst for Prison Program Engagement," in Crime & Delinquency. The paper explores how receiving visits while enrolled in prison education and vocation programs promotes retention in programming. The positive link between visits and program retention suggests that prison…
Alexandra Nur, Ph.D., (Criminal Justice) has published a new original article examining racial/ethnic disparities in prison misconduct sanctioning. Results suggest that Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White incarcerated persons are punished disparately for similarly severe prison misconduct infractions. The article is available at the Journal of…
Seong-min Park and Christopher Forepaugh (both Criminal Justice), along with a scholar from the Korean Institute of Criminology, recently published a peer-reviewed article, "Understanding the Association of Subjective Perception and Emotional Resentment With Micro- and Macro-Level Violence: A Multilevel SEM Examination of Relative Deprivation…
Sofia Takhtadjian and Issac Hernandez-Alcaraz (both from The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West) were selected to represent Nevada as part of the 2023 Western Governors' Leadership Institute, where they attended the Western Governors' Association's 2023 Annual Meeting in Boulder, Colorado. The two participated in the institute’s…
The multidisciplinary social and healthcare research team, which includes Seong Park (Criminal Justice), visiting professor Changsun Kim (Medicine), and Ji Yoo (Medicine) published an article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, October 2022. The article includes a critical appraisal of the HOPE HOME Study, health outcomes of…