Affiliation(s):

• Professor Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Wayne State University

I got a Law Degree from Renmin University of China, located in Beijing, China. I then obtained my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Criminology from the University of Delaware.

I have been doing research on four areas during the past fifteen years: (1) public perceptions of crime and justice; (2) police attitudes and behaviors; (3) victimization; and (4) law and society. Currently, I am working on a project that looks at the effects of race/ethnicity and place on public cooperation with the police. It is based on survey data collected from a large national sample of U.S. adults and employs structural equation modeling method to examine *how* and *why* individual’s race/ethnicity and neighborhood characteristics influence people’s willingness to cooperate with the police. Particularly, I assess the extent to which normative motivations (i.e., cooperation mainly derives from shared beliefs that the police are morally aligned with the communities that they serve) and instrumental motivations (i.e., cooperation chiefly stems from people’s fear of crime and the police’s primary functions of crime control) explain differential willingness to work with the police.

Reporting crime, testifying in court, and collaborating with police in crime prevention endeavors have important implications for police effectiveness in crime control, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods and among underrepresented populations. At a time when distrust between police and minorities, with many living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, has never been higher, there is both urgency and necessity to empirically examine factors that shape people’s experiences with and sentiments toward the police. My research shows that issues of trust, fairness, equality, and personal safety vary in their importance in closing the gaps in public cooperation with police among different racial/ethnic groups, and among neighborhoods with diverse levels of socio-economic disadvantage. Securing public support for the police remains a fundamental challenge for modern policing.

Many new areas and topics of research are worth exploring and investigating daily as we are living in a fast-changing world. New crimes constantly emerge, and new problems associated with criminal justice continuously arise, before the old ones are solved! That being said, I believe it is important for scholars including myself to not only generate knowledge, but also to find ways to translate our research into policies and practices. Indeed, criminal justice policies should not be based mainly on ideology, politics, public opinion, media coverage, etc., as they tend to be. Instead, they should be evidence-based. We, the researchers, know what works, what doesn’t, and how things work. We should get this knowledge out to a broader audience, informing policy- and decision-making. I would like to participate more in making the changes.

I have enjoyed reading many research papers and scholarly books in various areas of social sciences. It is hard to pinpoint a favorite. Let me introduce to you the two books currently on my desk. One is “Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row” by Forrest Stuart, and the other is “Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics” by Marie Gottschalk. Both are current, interesting, and thought-provoking. Highly recommend if you are interested in criminal justice issues!

I have many role models. Some are my teachers and mentors, such as my high school English teacher who taught me the magic power of encouraging words and actions in education, and my Ph.D. advisor who inspired me to become an independent scholar who is also a good team player. Some are my colleagues and students, who showed me that knowledge is infinite, and learning can happen in so many ways and areas. I’m also intrigued and impressed by many of the people whom I study, be they racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, or police officers. These individuals showed me the complicated logic of life and relationships that even the most advanced statistics and modeling are unable to capture!

I like to be close to nature, including just sitting in the backyard getting an eyeful of green during a beautiful Michigan summer afternoon while writing for the Wayne Women in STEM… I also like to exchange random thoughts and stories with my 6-year-old son. Just now, I was telling him a story of the world’s smallest but most extraordinary police dog Midge, and he was telling me that there are more kinds of beetles than plants on earth!