Dr. Tusty ten Bensel is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology and Associate Dean for Student Success, Curriculum, and Research in the College of Business, Health, and Human Services (CBHHS) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). She also serves as Director of the Justice Research and Policy Center (JRAP), where she leads applied research addressing pressing criminal justice initiatives and issues across Arkansas. She received her B.A and M.A in Criminal Justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
A nationally recognized scholar in violence and victimology, Dr. ten Bensel’s research examines the social, historical, and political contexts of criminal behavior and desistance, with a focus on violence and victimization, crimes against special populations, and criminal justice policy and evaluation. Dr. ten Bensel has authored or co-authored more than 46 scholarly works, including peer-reviewed articles in Criminology, Journal of Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and Criminal Justice Policy Review. As a funded researcher, she has secured more than $2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Probation, and multiple Arkansas state agencies. Based on her research on collective sexual violence in warring countries, she was invited to present her work at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she discussed the collectivization process of sexual violence in Bosnia and Sierra Leone.
As Associate Dean, Dr. ten Bensel provides strategic leadership across five disciplines in CBHHS, overseeing curriculum, faculty, and student research development, student success, and college-wide grant oversight. At the university level, Dr. ten Bensel serves as Provost’s Faculty Fellow in Accreditation, co-leading UALR’s Higher Learning Commission (HLC) processes. She co-chairs the Trojan Integrated Planning and Strategies (TIPS) Committee and co-designed and launched the Academic Leadership Academy (ALA), which is a professional development program for current and emerging academic leaders.
Dr. ten Bensel’s leadership and scholarship have been recognized with numerous honors. She was named to the Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 and received the Faculty Excellence Award in Research and Creative Endeavors from UALR’s College of Social Sciences and Communication. She was honored as Educator of the Year by the Single Parent Scholarship Foundation of Pulaski County and received the Innovative Program Award for her founding of UALR’s Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program. In the realm of executive leadership development, she holds a Paths of Leadership Facilitation Certification from Academic Impressions and completed the Women in Education Leadership Program at Harvard Business School.
Beyond the campus, Dr. ten Bensel is an active community leader. She co-chairs the Training Subcommittee of the Arkansas Human Trafficking Council, served on the Women’s Justice Health Alliance Council at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and is a member of the Group Violence Intervention Board for Jefferson County, Arkansas. A frequent expert commentator, she has been featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Business, KUAR/NPR, PBS Arkansas Week, and KATV, among other outlets.
Tusty ten Bensel can be reached at 501-916-5803 or [email protected].