Associate Dean for Research Appointed to Chair State Commission on Gun Violence

January 8, 2013

College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) Associate Dean of Research Jack McDevitt has been appointed by Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo to lead a special commission on gun violence.

McDevitt also directs the Northeastern Institute on Race and Justice and the Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research and is the co author of three books, Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed, Hate Crime Revisited: American War on Those Who Are Different (both with Jack Levin), and Victimology (with Judy Sgarzy). He has also co-authored a number of reports on hate crime, racial profiling and human trafficking including a monograph for the US Department of Justice on local law enforcement experiences with cases of human trafficking.

Working with Dr. Amy Farrell they developed the first national data collection system for human trafficking investigations, the Human Trafficking Reporting System, and they are presently concluding work on a project to identify barriers to identification and prosecution of human trafficking cases. Over this period he has published numerous articles on a wide variety topics in criminal justice. He has spoken on hate crime, racial profiling human trafficking and security both nationally and internationally, and has testified as an expert witness before the Judiciary Committees of both US Senate and The US House of Representatives and as invited expert at the White House.