Bianca Bersani Ph.D.
Associate Professor
College Park , Maryland 20742
Education:
- Ph.D., Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, College Park, 2010
- M.A., Sociology, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 2004
- B.A., with distinction, Sociology and Psychology, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 2002
Biography:
Most generally, I am a life course criminologist, studying factors that facilitate and hinder high-risk and illegal behavior over age. Most recently, this work has centered on the developmental phase of emerging adulthood. Emerging adults have a highest risk of engagement with the criminal legal system and suffer the worse consequences from this engagement; factors that are disproportionately borne by minority youth. My work is aimed at understanding how development during emerging adulthood influences engagement in crime and if/how engagement with the legal system influences this development. Other areas of my research include a focus on the immigrant-crime nexus. My work is at the individual level and is centered on understanding the intergenerational disparity in immigrant offending (differences between first, second, and third generations). Framed by a life course perspective, I am curious about differences over context and especially socio-historical time.