Jean McGloin Ph.D.

Recent Accomplishments

McGloin's research focuses on three primary areas: criminological theory; groups and crime (e.g., street gangs, co-offender networks, delinquent peer groups); and offending specialization. For example, in her 2007 paper with Christopher Sullivan, Alex Piquero and Travis Pratt and in the Journal of Research in Crime and "Delinquency, Local life circumstances and offending specialization/versatility: Comparing opportunity and propensity models", she investigates to what extent shifting opportunity structures affect changes in offending specialization, relative to individuals' enduring propensities to offend. Results suggest that both individual-level propensity, as well as changes in local life circumstances (e.g., employment, marriage, drug and alcohol use), impact patterns of offense specialization/versatility in the short-term and therefore underscore the need for theoretical integration in criminology. With regard to her work on groups and crime, she has published on the social organization of street gangs in Newark, New Jersey, as well as on relationship between deviant peer networks/co-offender networks and various aspects of the criminal career, in such journals as Criminology, and Criminology and Public Policy.

Funded Research

McGloin is currently the co-principal investigator (co-P.I.), along with Dr. Sally Simpson, on a grant from Office of the Vice President of Administrative Affairs to investigate campus safety at the University of Maryland. Funding for previous work has come from the State Attorney's Office of Prince George's County, the Police Institute at Rutgers University and the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Future Plans

During the next few years, McGloin's research will focus heavily on groups and anti-social behavior. She is studying the impact of delinquent peer networks on delinquency, in the context of criminological theory, using the AddHealth dataset. She has also proposed a novel way in which to understand and study the deviant peer effect - one that focuses on relative delinquency (i.e., the deviance gap or imbalance between friends). In addition to developing this theoretical contribution) rather than on simple exposure. Finally, she will continue to develop her research on co-offending networks, as well as join these discussions about group processes with her interest in offending specialization.