Alyssa

Yetter

Academic Title

Graduate Program Director and Assistant Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice 

Additional Title

Director, Criminology and Criminal Justice Graduate Program

Research Interests
  • Domestic Violence
  • Stratification
  • Police Training
  • Victimology
  • Quantitative and Mixed Methodology
Research Summary

As a sociological criminologist, my principal focus is on the intersection between social stratification, crime, and the criminal justice system, although this focus takes a variety of forms in my work. My research is fundamentally driven by my concern for the experiences of survivors of violent victimization, who are too often doubly failed by our society—first when victimized and second when seeking help and recovery. I study the latter failing through critical inquiry into 1) how survivors’ lives and families are shaped during recovery by inequality and disadvantage, and 2) how to improve the ability of law enforcement to work with victims of crime in effective, procedurally just ways. This second line of research includes an exploration of the roles and impacts of higher education in law enforcement training.

Education
  • Ph.D., Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University
  • M.A., Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University
  • B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Denison University
Areas of Expertise
  • Domestic Violence
  • Survey Design
  • Stratification
  • Police Training
  • Victimology
  • Quantitative Research Methods
Recent Publications

Malley, T., Yetter, A.M., & Szivak, T. (2023). Physical training considerations for police academy recruits. TSAC Report 68: 4-11.

Yetter, A.M. (2022). Mothers’ intimate partner violence victimization and depression: Associations with children’s behavioral functioning. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 37(21-22): NP21620-NP21344.

Staff, J., Yetter, A.M., Ramirez, N., Cundiff, K., Vuolo, M., & Mortimer, J. (2020). Is teenage employment still a risk factor for high school dropout? Journal of Research on Adolescence 30(2): 406-422.

Yetter, A.M. (2018). Victimization-precipitated residential mobility among women offenders. Crime & Delinquency 64(13): 1718-1741.

Graif, C., Lungeanu, A., & Yetter, A.M. (2017). Neighborhood isolation in Chicago: Violent crime effects on structural isolation and homophily in inter-neighborhood commuting networks, 2002-2013. Social Networks 51:40-59.

Yetter, A.M., Graif, C., & Fry, S.V. (2017). Public and subsidized housing in the United States. Pp. 616-623 in The American Middle Class: An Economic Encyclopedia of Progress and Poverty. Edited by Robert S. Rycroft. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Honors and Awards
  • Strategic Academic Research Trajectory Package (START), Merrimack College, 2022-2023
  • Zampell Family Faculty Fellow, Merrimack College, 2021-2022
  • Faculty Research Catalyst Fund, Merrimack College, 2021-2022
  • Faculty Development Grant, Merrimack College, 2020
  • Provost Innovation Fund, Merrimack College, 2019
  • Davis Educational Foundation Grant, 2019