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Jacqueline B. Helfgott, PhD
Professor/Director
Crime & Justice Research Center
Research focuses on criminal behavior, psychopathy, copycat crime, corrections and reentry, policing and public safety, restorative and community justice.
Biography
Jacqueline Helfgott is a Professor and Director of the Crime & Justice Research Center in the Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics at Seattle University. She holds a PhD and MA in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University and a BA in Psychology and Society & Justice from the University of Washington. Her research specializations include criminal behavior, psychopathy, copycat crime, corrections/reentry, public safety and police-community engagement, crisis intervention in law enforcement, and community/restorative justice. She has served as principal investigator on applied criminal justice research in policing, courts, corrections, and victim services.
She is author of Copycat Crime: How Media, Technology, and Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behavior and Violence (Bloomsbury, 2023), No Remorse: Psychopathy and Criminal Justice (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2019), Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice (Sage, 2008), Editor of Criminal Psychology, Volumes 1-4 (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2013), coauthor of Offender Reentry: Beyond Crime and Punishment (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013) and Women Leading Justice: Experiences and Insights (Routledge, 2019).
Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, Aggression and Violent Behavior, Criminal Justice & Behavior, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Federal Probation, International Review of Victimology, Journal of Community Corrections, Corrections: Policy and Practice, Criminal Justice Policy Review, and the Journal of Qualitative Criminology.
She has served as principal investigator on research funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Arnold Foundation, Community Oriented Police Services (COPS), and the Open Society Institute including the Seattle Women’s Reentry Evaluation, the Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice, Longitudinal Evaluation of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission Guardian Law Enforcement Training, the Seattle Police Department’s Officer/Mental Health Practitioner Partnership Pilot Program, and development, implementation, and evaluation of "Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice" (CVORJ) a prison-based encounter program at the Washington State Reformatory, and the Denver Neighborhood Safety Plans/Denver Public Safety Survey, She was 2nd Place winner of the 2023 National Institute of Justice Innovations in Measuring Community Perceptions Challenge.
She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at Seattle University including The Psychopath, Criminal Justice Theory, Typologies of Crime & Criminal Behavior, Criminology, Trafficking, and Murder, Movies & Copycat Crime. She is principal investigator on the Seattle Police Department’s Micro-Community Policing Plans/Seattle Public Safety Survey, “Before the Badge” Community-Police Dialogues, Longitudinal Evaluation of the Seattle Police “Before the Badge” Training Program, Seattle Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Evaluation, and evaluations for crime prevention initiatives in Seattle’s Rainier Beach ABSPY and Little Saigon. nd
Education
- PhD, Administration of Justice (Graduate Minor: Psychology), Penn State 1992
- MA, Administration of Justice, Penn State 1991
- BA, Psychology/Society & Justice, University of Washington 1988
Courses Taught
The Psychopath (undergraduate/graduate(, Criminal Justice Theory (graduate), Typologies of Crime & Criminal Behavior, Criminology (graduate), Trafficking(undergraduate/graduate), and Murder, Movies & Copycat Crime (undergraduate/graduate).
Publications
Books
For a complete list of books, visit: Jacqueline B. Helfgott, PhD
- Helfgott, J.B. (2023). Copycat Crime: How Media, Technology, and Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behavior and Violence. Bloomsbury. Copycat Crime
- Helfgott, J.B. (2019). No Remorse: Psychopathy and Criminal Justice. Praeger. No Remorse
- Helfgott, J.B. (2013). Criminal Psychology, Volumes 1-3. ABC/CLIO. Bloomsbury Collections
- Helfgott, J.B. (2008). Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice. Sage. Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies and Criminal Justice
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
For a complete list of publications, visit: Jacqueline B. Helfgott, PhD
- Helfgott, J.B., Bledsoe, B. N., & Christensen, S. (2024). Improving Public Safety through Precinct and Neighborhood-Based Virtual Restorative Community-Police Dialogues. Police Practice and Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2024.2429096
- Gunnison, E. & Helfgott, J.B. (2024). Criminology and Criminal Justice Researchers’ Experiences and Challenges with Institutional Review Boards. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology. https://doi.org/10.21428/88de04a1.b80c2536
- Helfgott, J.B. & Gunnison, E. (2023). Trauma, Psychopathic Traits, and Resilience in Female Post-Prison Reentry Outcomes. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.54555/ccjls.7115.74096
- Helfgott, J.B., Hickman, M.J., Strah, B.M., Atherley, L.T., Kosson, D.S., & Dorsher, E. (2022). The Relationship between Personality Traits and the Effectiveness of Guardian Law Enforcement Training, Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice. 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/24732850.2022.2028392
- Atherley, L.T., Hickman, M.J., Parkin, W.S., & Helfgott, J.B. (2022). Measurement of Potential Over- and Under-policing in Communities. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paac025
- Surette, R., Helfgott, J.B., Parkin, W., & O’Toole, M.E. (2021). The Social Construction of Copycat Crime in Open Access Media. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 21(1), 104-217.
- Gunnison, E., & Helfgott, Jacqueline B. (2021). Process, Power, and Impact of the Institutional Review Boards in Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 16(1), 1-17.
- Helfgott, J.B., Strah, B., Atherley, L, & Neidhart, E. (2021). Evaluation of CIT components of guardian law enforcement training. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 36(1), 403-422.
- Helfgott, J.B. & Gunnison, E. (2020). Gender-Responsive Reentry Services for Women Leaving Prison: The IF Project’s Seattle Women’s Reentry Initiative. Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research, 5(2), 65-88.
- Helfgott, J.B., Parkin, W.S., Fisher, C., & Diaz, A. (2020). Misdemeanor arrests and community perceptions of fear of crime in Seattle. Journal of Criminal Justice, 69, 1-19.