Faculty / Caterina Roman

Caterina Roman joined the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University in Fall 2008 after two decades with The Urban Institute, a leading non-partisan think tank in Washington, DC. Dr. Roman’s research interests include prisoner reentry; gang violence; the role of community organizations and institutions and other aspects of social capital in crime prevention and neighborhood well being; and the spatial and temporal relationship between neighborhood characteristics and violence. Her interest in communities, social capital and violence recently has extended into the area of active living research—a portfolio of research examining how environments and policies impact physical activity, especially among ethnic minorities and children living in low-income communities. In this vein, her multi-level ecological examination of the impact of crime and disorder on fear of walking was published in 2008 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (34(4):306-312), and her more recent work examining the pathways among perceptions of violence and disorder, fear, physical activity, health and obesity will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Public Health Policy.

Dr. Roman’s research on prisoner reentry includes studies evaluating housing models that support the community reintegration of individuals leaving jails and prisons. She has recently begun an NIJ-sponsored evaluation that employs a randomized design to test the hypothesis that homeless frequent users of jail with serious mental illness who are provided permanent supportive housing will be less likely to recidivate and use homeless shelters than a control group of jail releasees. Her work in the area of housing also includes an evaluation of the faith-based Ridge House residential program in Nevada, and a project focused on implementing and evaluating an innovative family-based case management program for disadvantaged families living in public housing in Chicago.

In the area of gangs, Dr. Roman is currently leading a study to understand the composition of Latino youth friendship and peer networks to derive the structural properties that influence the commission of crime. Through social network data collection and analysis, the OJJDP-sponsored study will elicit information on both individual and group dynamics that contribute to criminal behavior and group-related activity among Latino youth and young adults.

Dr. Roman has published numerous articles, book chapters, and op eds, and is the author of two books: “Schools, Neighborhoods, and Violence: Crime within the Daily Routines of Youth” (2004) and “Illicit Drug Policies, Trafficking, and Use the World Over” (2005). She holds a Ph.D. in Justice, Law and Society, from American University.