Kristina Thompson – Assistant Professor

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Biography

Dr. Thompson received her PhD from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at
the University of Missouri – St. Louis in the Spring of 2020. Kristina’s research interests
coalesce around the importance and intersections of populations (demography), places (spatial
and temporal dynamics), and policy (aims and implementations). Her dissertation examined how
labor market dimensions of rural-urban interdependency shaped rural crime rates following the
Great Recession. Most recently, Dr. Thompson has collaborated on a number of applied projects
targeting criminal justice policy issues including sex-offender technical violations and the use of
fines and fees as punishment in the criminal legal system.

Dr. Thompson teaches an array of classes at Georgia Southern including Research Methods,
Quantitative Research Design, Legal Process, and Senior Seminar. In all her classes, she
incorporates an applied component, and she enjoys discussing and unpacking contemporary
issues and research with the future leaders of the field.

Education

Ph.D., Criminology and Criminal Justice (2020) University of Missouri – St. Louis

M.A., Criminal Justice and Criminology (2014) University of Nebraska – Omaha

B.A., Political Science (2011) University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Research & Teaching Interests

Teaching

Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice; Introduction to Criminal Justice; Research Methods; Communities and Crime; Criminology; Quantitative Research Design

Research

Structural and population dynamics; quantitative methods; rural crime issues; applied research
and criminal justice policy evaluation; courts and court processes

Published Research

Vogel, Matt, Kristina J. Thompson, and Steven F. Messner. (2019). The enduring influence of cohort characteristics on race-specific homicide rates. Social Forces. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soz127

Hipple, Natalie, K., Kristina J. Thompson, Beth M. Huebner, and Lauren A. Magee. (2019). Understanding victim cooperation in cases of nonfatal gun assaults. Criminal Justice and Behavior. DOI: 10.1177/0093854819848806

Thompson, Kristina J. “Exploring Rural Crime in the Wake of Structural Change: Evidence from the Great Recession.” Presented at the 2019 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Garrity, Kristina T. “Labor Markets, Commuting, and Rural Violence: Incorporating Rural-Urban Interdependence into Studies of Crime.” Presented at the 2018 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

Garrity, Kristina T., Beth M. Huebner, and Ted Lentz. “Reassessing How Gangs Facilitate Violence: Replicating St. Louis Findings 20 Years Later.” Presented at the 2017 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Awards & Honors

2018 – ASC Gene Carte Student Paper Competition (1st place). “Rural Islands of Not? Exploring Rural-Urban Interdependency, Labor Markets, and Violence”

2016 – UMSL Graduate Student Research Fair (3rd place). “Revisiting Social Disorganization Outside the Metropolis: How do Official Records Matter?”

Last updated: 12/15/2023