Faraneh Shamserad
Faraneh Shamserad is a PhD candidate in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri – St Louis. She obtained a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Missouri – St Louis, as well. Her primary research interests include immigration, punishment, and moral panics, with a motivation to understand the causes and consequences of disproportionate societal fears. Her dissertation examines the extent to which newspaper coverage and Google search volumes influence the punishment of immigrants in the United States. Faraneh currently works as a research assistant for Dr. Adam Boessen and Dr. Marisa Omori on a project examining how migration patterns and political contexts relate to jail incarceration in counties. Her work has appeared in journals such as Youth & Society, Journal of School Violence, and Criminal Justice and Behavior.
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Benjamin Hamilton
Email: bchb83@umsystem.edu
Ben joined UMSL's Criminology and Criminal Justice PhD program in 2015 after entering the MA program a year prior. He earned his BA in Criminal Justice at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, and his research interests include offender decision making, measurement of theoretical constructs, evaluation of criminal justice interventions, and quantitative methods.
Dissertation Title: “Net Benefits and Offender Decision Making: Investigating some Overlooked Predictions of a Rational Choice Theory of Crime.”
Dissertation Committee: Kyle Thomas (Chair), Lee Ann Slocum, Janet Lauritsen, and Thomas Loughran.
Areas of Interest: Offender decision making, measurement, evaluation research, partial identification, and quantitative methods.
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