Nancy Blank

Nancy Hirschinger Blank, PhD

  • Chair, Criminal Justice
  • Professor, Criminal Justice
Media Expertise:
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Criminal Justice
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Affiliated Programs

Education

  • PhD, Criminal Justice (2003)
    Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey--Newark (NJ)

About Me

I view the educational process as a collaborative effort between students and teacher where students play an active role in the classroom. To achieve this, students and I together actively engage in discussion, asking questions, listening to others, and challenging ourselves to understand a diversity of perspectives. I am sensitive to students' different learning styles by employing varied methods of learning. In my courses we integrate learning from the real world such as tours (e.g. to prisons, juvenile detentions, courthouses) with theories and research learned in the classroom to deepen our understanding of criminal behavior and the justice system.

Research Interests

My research interests include the impact of experiential (e.g. service-learning, diversity) learning on university student outcomes, the development and assessment of literacy programs for youthful offenders, and mental health among justice-involved female youth.

Media Expertise

  • Juvenile delinquency
  • Juvenile violence in urban areas
  • Female gender-specific issues related to incarceration and violence
  • Female-on-female violence, adults and juveniles
  • Domestic violence

Publications

  • Hirschinger-Blank, N.B., Forke, C.M., Kenyon, A., Myers, R.K., Zhang, X., & Schwarz, D.F. (2014). A feasibility study of child maltreatment among justice-involved girls. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 1–26.
  • Blank-Hirschinger, N., Simons, L., Finley, L., Cleary, J., & Thoerig, M. (2012). A pilot study of a criminal justice service-learning course: The value of a multicultural approach. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(1), 14–28.
  • Hirschinger-Blank, N.B., Simons, L., & Kenyon, A. (2009). An evaluation of a service-learning model for criminal justice undergraduate students. Journal of Experiential Education, 32(1), 61–78.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Society of Criminology (ASC), Eastern Sociology Society (ESS)

Awards

  • Clarence R. Moll Professor of the Year Award, 2008