UCI doctoral student to be awarded prestigious American Society of Criminology fellowship

Christopher Contreras

Christopher  Contreras, a Ph.D. student in criminology, law & society, has been selected as a 2019 recipient of the American Society of Criminology’s Ruth D. Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The award program, designed to assist minority graduate students, annually recognizes three fellows, based on their outstanding accomplishments and promise for future contributions to criminology. “This diversity fellowship will provide me with the opportunity to work on my research, encourages me to enter the field and facilitates the completion of my doctoral degree,” Contreras said. His dissertation examines the effects of drug abuse, drug activity and violent crime beyond inner cities and into the suburbs. He intends to use the funding to help support his fieldwork in Miami-Dade County, Florida. “My research will be heavily quantitative, but it will benefit from my observations and interviews of key stakeholders who deal with the consequences of rising drug abuse and violence in their communities,” Contreras said. The awards will be presented at the ASC meeting on Nov. 13 in San Francisco.

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