Dr. Caitlin Charles is the Center’s new Research Specialist and an early-career researcher (Ph.D., Louisiana State University, 2023). Prior to joining SMU, Dr. Charles attended Louisiana State University, where she received both her B.A. and M.A. in Sociology. She has published in the Journal of Crime and Delinquency, and her prior work was a mixed-method assessment of racial, ethnic, and gender disparities within the criminal legal system and beyond, involving extensive original data collection, survey creation, and spatial mapping.
Dr. Charles has also studied the lived experiences of families affected by the criminal legal system, violence against women, and racism. Her experience preparing geospatial datasets, conducting geospatial analysis, and focusing on client experiences round out the Deason Center research team’s expertise.