Profile
As a criminologist, Dr. Kempf-Leonard’s interests involve measuring important concepts and relationships between crime, criminals and how society responds to both. She typically focuses on three areas: 1) life-course development of offenders; 2) identifying and explaining disparity by race, ethnicity, gender, age, & geographic location in justice system processing; 3) evaluation of juvenile justice courts and corrections. The work for which she is most well known is on race and court sentencing, in both juvenile and criminal courts; and for juvenile delinquency patterns of offending, particularly as they relate to adult offending and various policy interventions.
Past Work Experiences
Prior to coming to UT-Dallas, Dr. Kempf-Leonard served as Graduate Director and Associate Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri‑St. Louis. During her tenure at UM-St. Louis she also was a fellow of the Public Policy Research Centers, the Institute for Women and Gender Studies, and an adjunct faculty member of the Master’s of Public Policy Administration program. She has also taught at Kent State University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kempf-Leonard served as a Research Fellow for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Missouri Youth Initiative, and was a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics & Political Science.
Awards
Minorities in Juvenile Justice. Kempf-Leonard, Pope, & Feyerherm (eds.), (1995, Sage) won the 1997 Gustavus Myers Award for Human Rights in North America.
Professional Organizations
Dr. Kempf-Leonard is active in the American Society of Criminology. She has served on many ASC committees, including Ethics, Gene Carte Student Paper Competition, Membership, Nominations, Program, Site selection, and Inter-organizational Relations. She has presented research findings at the Annual meetings for over 25 years, and has served as chair and discussant of many panels.
Dr. Kempf-Leonard is Associate Editor of Crime & Delinquency and has or currently serves on editorial boards for Women & Criminal Justice, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Journal of Crime & Justice, and Urban Affairs Review. She also frequently reviews for Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, Crime & Delinquency, Criminal Justice Review, Journal of Contemporary Criminology, and Western Criminological Review.
Courses
Professor Kempf-Leonard teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in gender, race, ethnicity, and crime; research design and methods; social control; criminal justice policies; delinquency and juvenile justice.
Current Funded Research Projects
The Role of Gender in Juvenile Referrals, Case, Processing, & Treatment in Dallas County Juvenile Department, 2005. Prepared for the Criminal Justice Division, Office of the Governor, & Federal Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (with B. Jacobs), $71,807.
Recent Publications
“Gender and Runaways: Risk Factors, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice Experiences”2007 (with P. Johansson) Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice
“Minority Youths & Juvenile Justice: Disproportionate Minority Contact after nearly Twenty Years of Reform Efforts,” 2007 Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice
Our Children, Their Children: Confronting Race and Ethnic Differences in American Criminal Justice. 2005 (with D.F. Hawkins, eds.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
“Justice by Geography: Racial Disparity and Juvenile Courts,” (with T. Bray, L. Sample) in Our Children, Their Children: Confronting Race and Ethnic Differences in American Criminal Justice.
Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, three volumes. 2005. San Francisco, CA: Elsevier/Academic Press.
“Gender Differences in Delinquency Career Types and the Transition to Adult Crime,”2005 (with P.E. Tracy) in It’s a Crime: Women and Justice, 4th edition, (R. Muraskin ed). NY: Prentice Hall.
- Updated: October 16, 2006
