Journal Club - Bianca Bersani

Details about the discussion - 

Our speaker for this meeting is Dr. Bianca Bersani from the department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Dr. Bersani will be discussing her work centered around  life course perspective and the developmental phases of emerging adults. In this talk, you will be learning about her work that examines arrests during the early adolescent period and how it affects later developmental periods. If interested, she will also be open to discuss her work in the immigrant population and its generational disparities. 

Dr. Bersani was also featured on a podcast episode, so be sure check that out at this link. 

Details about the Speaker - 

As a life course criminologist my research focuses on issues concerning criminal offending across the entire life span such as the study of factors that facilitate and hinder high-risk and illegal behavior as people age.  Ample evidence demonstrates that involvement in delinquency and crime is ubiquitous during adolescence and young adulthood; equally common is the rapid decline in crime (i.e., desistance) during the transition to adulthood. While involvement in and desistance from crime are both pervasive characteristics of the life course, for many, this behavior incurs a formal legal system response and detriments individual well-being. My scholarship centers on examining patterns (e.g., trajectories) and processes related to offending across the life course with particular emphasis on how and why salient life events (e.g., marriage, arrest) alter criminal offending trajectories and influence desistance from crime, the mechanisms that help to facilitate behavioral change over time, and how processes of change may be conditioned by one’s social position (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender, class, and immigrant generation).

Most recently, this work has centered on the developmental phase of emerging adulthood. Emerging adults have the highest risk of engagement with the criminal legal system and suffer the worst 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. 

I currently serve as the Director of the Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC). A central aim of MCRIC is to work with local jurisdictions, agencies, and communities to conduct data-driven research and analysis to inform public safety decision-making.  

Location IN PERSON: 2101C Morrill Hall, Bianchi Room

RSVP: Clayton Buck or Judy Zhuang

If you have never been to Journal Club before and have questions or want to be added to the Journal Club listserv, please be sure to reach out directly to either Clayton Buck or Judy Zhuang. Journal Club is a student-directed initiative helping young scholars to review literature, connect with senior scholars, ask questions about the publication process, and develop research plans. Don't miss out on this opportunity! For more information about Journal Club.