Shea W. Cronin

Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Chair, Applied Social Sciences

Dr. Shea Cronin is chair of the Department of Applied Social Sciences at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. In this role, he provides academic leadership across several graduate programs and leads efforts to strengthen criminal justice education through curriculum innovation, experiential learning, and closer integration of research and professional practice. His teaching and research focus on crime policy, criminal justice administration, crime analysis, and the development and implementation of evidence-informed strategies to address public safety challenges.

Dr. Cronin has conducted extensive quantitative and applied research on firearms trafficking and firearm-related violence, policing strategies, criminal justice organizations, and policy implementation. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals, including the Journal of Urban Health, Journal of Crime & Justice, Justice Quarterly, and Crime & Delinquency.

An active applied researcher, Cronin is a co-principal investigator on the Shannon Community Safety Initiative, funded by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Through this work, he provides research, analytical, and strategic support to local law enforcement agencies and community-based organizations working collaboratively to prevent and reduce youth violence. He was previously a co-investigator on a National Institute of Justice-funded study examining the relationship between state firearm laws and homicide rates across racial and ethnic populations.

At Boston University, Cronin teaches graduate courses in criminology and crime policy, crime analysis, research and evaluation methods, and strategic planning and implementation. His teaching emphasizes the practical application of research, data analysis, and evidence to improve criminal justice policy, management, and practice.

Scholarly Works

Refereed Publications

Knopov, A., Siegel, M., Xuan, Z., Rothman, E. F., Cronin, S. W., and Hemenway, D. “The Impact of State Firearm Laws on Homicide Rates among Black and White Populations in the United States, 1991–2016.” Health & Social Work 44, no. 4 (2019): 232–240.

Siegel, M., Solomon, B., Knopov, A., Rothman, E. F., Cronin, S. W., Xuan, Z., & Hemenway, D. “The Impact of State Firearm Laws on Homicide Rates in Suburban and Rural Areas Compared to Large Cities in the United States, 1991‐2016.” The Journal of Rural Health (2019).

Knopov, A., Rothman, E., Cronin, S., Franklin, L., Cansever, A., Potter, F., Mesic, A., Sharma, A., Xuan, Z., Siegel, M., and Hemenway, D. “The Role of Racial Residential Segregation in Black-White Disparities in Firearm Homicide at the State Level in the United States, 1991–2015.” Journal of the National Medical Association (2018).

Collins, T., Greenberg, R., Siegel, M., Xuan, Z., Rothman, E., Cronin, S., and Hemenway, D. “State Firearm Laws and Interstate Gun Trafficking in the United States, 2006–2016.” Journal of Urban Health (2018).

“Neighborhood Context and Media Representations of Crime.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media, and Popular Culture, edited by Michelle Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).

Cronin, Shea, Jack McDevitt, and Gary Cordner. “Police Supervision: Perspectives of Subordinates.” Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 40, no. 1 (2016): 26–41. DOI: 10.1108/PIJSM-07-2016-0117

Choi, Kyung-Shick, Shea Cronin, and Heather Correia. “The Assessment of Capable Guardianship Measures Against Bullying Victimization in the School Environment.” Police Practice & Research 17, no. 2 (2016): 149–159.

Farrell, Amy, and Shea Cronin. “Policing Prostitution in an Era of Human Trafficking.” Journal of Crime, Law and Social Change 64, no. 4–5 (2015): 211–228.

Cronin, S., Farrell, A., and Pennington, L. “Juror Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Legal Authorities and Decision Making in Criminal Cases.” Law & Social Inquiry 38, no. 4 (Fall 2013): 773–802.

Kane, Robert J., and Shea Cronin. “Maintaining Order Under the Rule of Law: Occupational Templates and Police Use of Force.” Journal of Crime and Justice no. 3 (2011).

“Understanding the Temporal Dynamics of Police Organizational Responses to Crime.” Proc. Annual Meeting of American Society of Criminology (San Francisco, Calif., 2010).

Cronin, S., and A. Farrell. “Innovation in Law Enforcement Responses to ‘New Crimes’: The Case of Human Trafficking.” Proc. Annual Meeting of American Society of Criminology (San Francisco, Calif., 2010).

Kane, Robert J., and Shea Cronin. “Associations between Order-Maintenance Policing and Violent Crime: Considering the Mediating Effects of Residential Context.” Crime & Delinquency (2009).

Braga, Anthony, Glen Pierce, Jack McDevitt, Brenda Bond, and Shea Cronin. “The Strategic Prevention of Gang Violence Among Gang-Involved Offenders.” Justice Quarterly 15, no. 1 (2008): 132.

Gueorguieva, Vassia, Jean Accius, Carmen Apaza, Lamar Bennett, Shea Cronin, and Panote Preechyanud. “The Program Assessment Rating Tool and the Government Performance and Results Act: Evaluating Conflicts and Disconnections.” The American Review of Public Administration 39 (2009): 225–245. Originally published online June 2008 as doi: 10.1177/0275074008319218.

Cronin, Shea, Jack McDevitt, Amy Farrell, and Jim Nolan. “Bias Crime Reporting: Organizational Responses to Ambiguity, Uncertainty, and Infrequency.” American Behavioral Scientist 51, no. 2 (2007): 213–231.

Nolan, Jim, Shea Cronin, Jack McDevitt, and Amy Farrell. “Learning to See Hate Crimes: A Framework for Understanding and Clarifying Ambiguities in Bias Crime Classification.” The Justice Professional 17, no. 1 (2004): 91–105.

Academic Presentations

Cronin, S., and Siegel, M. “Deadly Imbalances: State Firearms Laws, Interstate Trafficking and Firearm-Related Homicide.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Calif. (2019).

Siegel, M., Cronin, S., Knopov, E., Xuan, Z., Rothman, E., and Hemenway, D. “Differential Effects of Firearms Law on Urban and Non-Urban Settings.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Ga. (2018).

Abbott, S., Cronin, S., and Rousseau, D. “Evaluating the Impact of Co-Responder Jail Diversion Program.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Ga. (2018).

Cronin, S., and Katherine Limoncelli. “Spatial Concentration of Crime and City-Level Social Control Outputs.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pa. (2017).

Cronin, S. “The politics of illegal gun enforcement.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, La. (2016).

Farrell, A., McDevitt, J., Cronin, S., and Dank, M. “Human Trafficking Crime Reporting.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, La. (2016).

Matesanz, J., Rousseau, D., and Cronin, S. “The impact of education on incarcerated students.” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, La. (2016).

Cronin, S., Amy Farrell, and Monica DeLateur. “Combatting Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Benevolence or Punishment.” Presentation at the American Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. (2015).

Cronin, S. “The Political Determinants of Drinking and Driving Enforcement Across the US, 1980–2010.” Presentation at the American Society of Criminology Annual Conference, San Francisco, Calif. (2014).

Cronin, S., Danielle Rousseau, and Mary Ellen Mastrorilli. “Qualitative Analysis of Media Representations of Homicide.” Presentation at the American Society of Criminology Annual Conference, San Francisco, Calif. (2014).

Farrell, A., and Shea Cronin. “Policing prostitution in an era of human trafficking.” Paper presented at the Global Criminology Symposium at Northeastern University, Boston, Mass. (2014).

Faculty Q&A

What is your area of expertise?
My broad area of expertise is in criminal justice policy and administration. I specifically focus on issues related to policing, which includes both police strategies and accountability challenges. These areas focus my work on the same kinds of fascinating, complex, and important topics that draw our students to the field.

Please tell us about your work. Can you share any current research or recent publications?
There are two areas that have attracted most of my attention recently. The first is a National Institute of Justice-funded project, led by Professor Michael Siegel and other colleagues from BU’s School of Public Health. Here we are working on a series of studies examining racial disparities in homicide rates. For example, the team has developed one paper testing the differential effect of state firearms laws on race-specific homicide rates. The team has also recently published a paper in Journal of Urban Health on the determinants of interstate firearms trafficking. The second area is a set of projects that I am working on with Professor Danielle Rousseau from our Criminal Justice program and a colleague from a different university, Professor Sarah Abbott. We are looking at crucial questions related to the ways “co-response” models improve local police responses in situations involving individuals with mental illness by embedding clinicians in the agency. As our students in the field know well, this is a major challenge and an area that is undergoing a great deal of reform.

How does the subject you work in apply in practice? What is its application?
I work to focus my research on areas that are connected strongly to policy and practice. Evaluation of firearms laws directly informs the choices of justice policymakers. Working on the impact, as well as the implementation issues, of innovative police reforms, like the co-response model, helps to guide police agencies in the field. The lessons we learn about “how to do it” are as important as evaluating “what to do” for our students in the field.

What courses do you teach in the program? What “real-life” exercises do you bring to class?
The courses I teach in the program include criminology, policing, analytical methods, and research methods. Whether online or on campus, I strive to make each course an active and open learning environment. To accomplish this aim, I usually employ simulation-type assignments and exercises. Students in my policing class are set up with a real-world background and data about community problems and asked to develop true problem- or community-oriented responses. This puts them in the shoes of the kinds of multidisciplinary partnerships that are the hallmarks of effective contemporary approaches in the field.

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