Brooklynn Hitchens, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. She is a sociologist and critical criminologist who studies race, class and gender inequities in urban violent crime and trauma, along with urban policing. Using participatory action research (PAR) methods, she partners with low-income Black communities to reduce racial disparities in gun violence and other forms of crime. Her work is primarily qualitative, through the use of ethnography, interviews, and focus groups – and she also utilizes mixed methods.

Dr. Hitchens is currently working on 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 studying 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.

Dr. Hitchens advances scholarship that centers the lived experiences of marginalized Black Americans and elucidates how structural inequities influence criminal behavior and other disparate outcomes.

Areas of Interest

  • Race, Class, and Gender in Victimization
  • Urban Violence and Trauma
  • Urban Ethnography and Qualitative Methods

Degrees

  • Degree Type
    Ph.D.
    Degree Details
    Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Degree Type
    M.A.
    Degree Details
    Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Degree Type
    B.A.
    Degree Details
    University of Delaware
Course Name Course Title Semester Syllabus
CCJS225 Responses to Violence Spring 2023 Syllabus

Current Students

Former Students

Related Students (Listed by Student on Student's Profile)

  • Isabella Castillo
Headshot S23
2153 LeFrak Hall
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Email
hitchens [at] umd.edu