Dr. Timothy Brown is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He joined the department in the summer of 2012. Prior to assuming his present position, Tim was an instructor in the Sociology Departments at the University of Houston and Rice University. He received his Ph.D. of Sociology with a concentration in Criminology from Louisiana State University in 2010. His dissertation research concentrated on the effects of changes in economic structure on social disorganization.
His research utilizes both sociological as well as criminological theory in his examination of crime and the criminal justice system. His primary research interests include ecological models of crime focusing on social capital, cultural criminology, deviance, corrections, and qualitative research methodology. One of his research questions of interest examines the link between economic restructuring and patterns of social capital, crime, and social control. Although social capital literature frequently examines the consequences of social capital on a variety of outcomes, the key theoretical contribution of Tim’s research is a framework to explain how community structure conditions social relations among local residents which in turn can have positive social implications, particularly an increased ability for communities to ameliorate crime via informal social control mechanisms. The goal of this research is to underscore how growing communities can better accommodate a growing population by utilizing voluntary associations to help integrate newcomers and to mitigate the negative effects of population turnover on crime in these communities. His research has been published in such scholarly journals as: Sociological Spectrum; The International Journal of Crime, Criminal Justice, and the law; Sociology Mind; and The International Journal of Rural Crime.
He is currently working on projects focusing on the social capital and social networks of inmates, the criminal calculus of violent female offenders, and the relationship between the availability of alcohol and violent crime among others. Tim Brown is also a member of the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Science, the Southern Criminal Justice Association, and the Southern Sociological Society.
Dr. Brown can be reached at (501) 569-3076 or tcbrown2@ualr.edu
Please click here to view Dr. Brown’s Vita.
