Jacqueline Helfgott is Director of the Seattle University Crime & Justice Research Center and Loyola Endowed Professor of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Forensics. She has a PhD and MA in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University and a BA in Psychology and Society & Justice from the University of Washington. Her research specializations include criminal behavior, psychopathy, copycat crime, corrections/reentry, public safety, police-community relations, crisis intervention in law enforcement, and community/restorative justice. She has served as principal investigator on applied criminal justice research in policing, courts, corrections, and victim services. She is author of Copycat Crime: How Media, Technology, and Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behavior and Violence (Bloomsbury, 2023), No Remorse: Psychopathy and Criminal Justice (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2019), Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice (Sage, 2008), Editor of Criminal Psychology, Volumes 1-4 (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2013), coauthor of Offender Reentry: Beyond Crime and Punishment (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013) and Women Leading Justice: Experiences and Insights (Routledge, 2019). Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology,Aggression and Violent Behavior, Criminal Justice & Behavior, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Federal Probation, International Review of Victimology, Journal of Community Corrections, Corrections: Policy and Practice, Criminal Justice Policy Review, and the Journal of Qualitative Criminology. She has served as principal investigator on research funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Arnold Foundation, Community Oriented Police Services (COPS), and the Open Society Institute including the Seattle Women’s Reentry Evaluation, the Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice, Longitudinal Evaluation of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission Guardian Law Enforcement Training, the Seattle Police Department’s Officer/Mental Health Practitioner Partnership Pilot Program, and development, implementation, and evaluation of "Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice" (CVORJ) a prison-based encounter program at the Washington State Reformatory. She was 2nd Place winner of the 2023 National Institute of Justice Innovations in Measuring Community Perceptions Challenge. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at Seattle University including The Psychopath, Criminal Justice Theory, Typologies of Crime & Criminal Behavior, and Murder, Movies & Copycat Crime. Shehas served as principal investigator on applied public safety research including the Seattle Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Evaluation, Denver Neighborhood Safety Plans/Denver Public Safety Survey, and the Seattle Police Department’s MCPP Little Saigon Evaluation. She is currently principal investigator on the Seattle Police Department’s Micro-Community Policing Plans/Seattle Public Safety Survey, the “Before the Badge” Community-Police Dialogues, Longitudinal Evaluation of the Seattle Police “Before the Badge” Training Program, and the Rainier Beach A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth Evaluation. She serves on the the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Committee and the King County Deadly Incident Review and Recommendation Panel and previously served on the Seattle Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Sexual Assault and System Reform and advisory boards for Washington State Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island and Interaction Transition. She regularly contributes to public discourse on crime and justice through op-eds and media interviews and. She is a member of the American Society of Criminology, the Western Society of Criminology, the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and the Association for Threat Assessment Professionals.
