Key Research Areas: Urban Gun Violence & Trauma • Women & Crime • Race, Class & Gender Disparities in Victimization • Hard-to-Reach Populations • Participatory Action Research (PAR) • Qualitative & Mixed Methods

Brooklynn Hitchens, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. She is a sociologist who critically investigates how street-identified and justice-involved Black populations navigate 1) participation in crime, 2) risks for victimization, and 3) involvement with police. Her work problematizes our understandings of urban violence, and explores how experiences of victimization and violent loss affect individuals' cultural behaviors, attitudes, and worldviews.

She uses street participatory action research (Street PAR) methods to partner with low-income Black communities to reduce racial inequities in exposure to violence. Her methodological expertise is qualitative, through the use of ethnography, interviews, and focus groups – and she also utilizes quantitative and mixed methods.

Dr. Hitchens is currently leading three research projects: 1) She is the Co-Project Director of a multi-neighborhood research team studying violence, health, and opportunity in Wilmington, DE; 2) She is a Project Director on a four-site research team examining high-risk gun carrying among Black youth in Philadelphia, Detroit, Brooklyn, and Wilmington (DE); and 3) She is the Co-PI on a policing study assessing Black perceptions of and attitudes toward the Baltimore Police Department.

Hitchens is the co-author of Murdertown USA: Homicide, Structural Violence, and Activism in Wilmington (2023). Her work has appeared in journals across multiple disciplines, including criminology, sociology, public health, and psychology.