Xinyi (Sammy) Situ

"I am pursuing academic (tenure track) or postdoctoral positions in criminology, criminal justice, or other relevant fields."

Expected Graduation

Spring 2025

Xinyi's Dissertation

“Can human mobility data improve crime forecast? A spatiotemporal analysis of collective human mobility patterns and crime variations in Baltimore City”

Committee: Dr. Gary LaFree (Chair), Dr. Wade C. Jacobsen, Dr. Greg Midgette, Dr. María B. Vélez, and Dr. Kathleen Stewart

Xinyi's Research

My primary research interests include place-based criminology, policing, ethnic-racial disparities, and juvenile delinquency.

My dissertation research examines the connection between collective human mobility patterns and crime victimization in Baltimore City, and investigates how mobility-crime associations differ across various neighborhoods and periods. I combine mobility device location data with other data sources, and link collective human mobility patterns to the spatiotemporal variations of urban crimes before the pandemic. As an extension of my dissertation, I published my sole-author paper, From Mobility to Crime: Collective Patterns of Human Mobility and Gun Violence in Baltimore City, in the Journal of Criminal Justice in August 2024. This paper further links collective mobility patterns to the differential distributions of gun violence incidents in Baltimore City.

Besides my dissertation research, one of my collaborative papers, Impact of Anti-Drug Use Advertisements in Hong Kong: A Randomized Control Experiment, is forthcoming in the Journal of Drug Issues. Another submitted paper examines the role of collective efficacy in the relationship between neighborhood violence exposure and residents’ rating
of police legitimacy within public housing communities. This paper is currently under review. I have ongoing projects with Dr. Wade Jacobsen and Dr. Amanda Geller (UC Irvine)
regarding the role of stigma towards the relationship between adolescents’ police contact experience and outcomes of network withdrawal and legal cynicism. I also have a working paper with Dr. Zubin Jelveh to estimate the potential effect of non-fatal strangulation law implementation on police arrest patterns and domestic violence cases across various US states.

Xinyi’s Google Scholar Page
Xinyi's LinkedIn
X/Twitter: @xinyisitu_sammy

Gabrielle (Gabi) Wy

"With expertise in criminology and training in demographic methods, I seek academic tenure-track or postdoctoral positions in criminology, criminal justice, and sociology."

Expected Graduation

December 2024

Gabi's Dissertation

"Neighborhood Cultural Heterogeneity and Offending Across Race, Ethnicity, and Immigrant Generation"

Committee: Dr. Wade Jacobsen [Chair]; Dr. Bianca Bersani; Dr. María Vélez; Dr. Lauren Porter; Dr. Sophia Rodriguez

Gabi's Research

"My research interests center immigration, race/ethnicity, crime, and justice, neighborhoods and communities, labeling and cumulative disadvantage, and juvenile delinquency. I focus on how social context and disadvantage may uniquely shape the experiences, attitudes, and behaviors of marginalized migrant and ethnic minority youth, investigating how neighborhood factors and experiences with the legal system may critically inform life course trajectories and entrench youth in cycles of anti-social behavior and system contact.

At the beginning of my graduate career, I wrapped up psychology and criminal justice projects started at my undergraduate institution, resulting in a first-author publication in the American Journal of Criminal Justice, as well as three co-authored publications in health psychology journals. Since then, I’ve co-authored five separate papers-in-progress with four different faculty within UMD CCJS.

First, I highlight two co-authored manuscripts under review. One of these is a historical analysis of religious groups’ views on the causes of juvenile delinquency and alignment with eugenics in the post-Progressive Era. Another recently submitted paper utilizes data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY97) and a decomposition strategy to identify the relevant contributions of theoretically derived covariates in driving the generational disparity in offending.

I also note two first-author manuscripts in preparation for submission. One examines how neighborhood context in a primarily-Hispanic border county may shape legal socialization attitudes amongst migrant and ethnic-minority residents. This paper leverages data from El Paso County, Texas to examine whether immigrant generational status and neighborhood disadvantage interact to shape legal socialization amongst residents in a primarily-Hispanic border context. Another first author manuscript examines internalized stigma, arrest with and without conviction, and offending using data from AddHealth.

I am also passionate about interdisciplinary scholarship. I have a rich working relationship with Dr. Sophia Rodriguez, an urban education professor now at NYU, analyzing survey data for a William T. Grant-funded study and finding a largely decreased sense of belonging amongst minority and migrant youth. We coauthored an article in Educational Researcher reporting our first set of results, with several more papers planned. Further, I completed training in demographic methods through the Maryland Population Research Center, which fostered greater exposure and engagement with disciplines such as sociology, education, public health, and economics. I hope to continue such interdisciplinary work as a junior faculty member."

Gabi's Google Scholar Page
Gabi's LinkedIn
X/Twitter: @gabicwy