Welcome (Soon-To-Be) Dr. Laisa F. Abreu Rivera, Florida Atlantic’s First Post-Doc Fellow in Criminology and Criminal Justice

The College of Social Work and Criminal Justice is thrilled to announce the hire of our first post-doctoral fellow in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Laisa F. Abreu Rivera, a PhD candidate at Florida State University who’s set to join us in the fall once she’s completed her dissertation.

Abreu’s research interests include immigration, capital punishment, criminal justice attitudes, and the intersection of victimization and other factors. She has published articles in the British Journal of Criminology and the European Journal of Criminology and assisted in research projects funded by the National Science Foundation. She has also taught and assisted in courses centering on corrections, the courts, research methods, comparative criminology, and criminal justice.

“Laisa’s work exemplifies the kind of scholarship that deepens understanding and connects research with real-world application,” said Naelys Luna, PhD, MSW, founding dean of the College of Social Work and Criminal Justice.  “Her commitment to translational criminology aligns perfectly with our mission to drive meaningful change through evidence-based policy and community engagement. Welcoming our first post-doctoral fellow to the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice not only strengthens our university's research capacity as an R1 institution but also highlights our dedication to advancing knowledge that makes a tangible impact.”

Examining Victimization and Punitive Attitudes

Abreu’s dissertation focuses on victimization and punitive attitudes among college students. Specifically, she explores how various factors play a role in shaping those attitudes in response to being victimized. Her research pushes back on the assumption that there is a simple, intuitive connection criminal victimization and support for harsher penalties.

“In a lot of cases, we see that that’s not exactly what many victims want, though it’s what policy makers usually assume they want,” Abreu said. “The relationship is actually way more complex than we initially thought.

“We have this preliminary relationship [between victimization and punitive attitudes] that’s been studied, but there really hasn’t been much research on what’s happening in the middle there. That’s why I look at these other factors.”

Her dissertation is not the first time Abreu’s work has explored the relationship between crime and perception. In “Immigrant threat, perception of unsafety, and political articulation of immigration and multiculturalism in European countries,” her 2024 article published in the European Journal of Criminology, she examined the connection between political rhetoric and public perception about the threat posed by immigrants. The study used data from the 2018 European Social Survey (ESS) and the Manifesto Project Dataset, a comparative dataset on political statements, to review attitudes in several countries. The findings underscore the impact politics can have on our collective sense of safety.

“Having a post-doctoral fellow join us is a major milestone for the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice,” said Ryan Meldrum, PhD, who serves as director of the school. “Moreover, it strategically fits with Florida Atlantic’s ascension to an R1 University.”

Criminology, Law, and Public Policy

Originally born in Brooklyn, NY, but raised in Florida since she was nine years old, Abreu says she didn’t have a career in criminology in mind when she started as an undergraduate at the University of Florida in 2015.

“It had never occurred to me,” she said. “I always had some of the more traditional career paths in mind: lawyer, doctor, engineer.”

But as she delved into her undergraduate studies, Abreu’s interests began to shift. She was less drawn to legal procedure and more captivated by the deeper, structural issues that influence crime—issues rooted in sociology, economics, and public policy.

With guidance from a faculty advisor, Abreu began considering academic research as a viable career path. By her senior year, she decided to pursue a PhD instead of a JD. That shift opened a new world of inquiry, one centered around the complex social forces that shape the criminal justice system and the lives of those within it.

However, Abreu’s work remains firmly grounded in the belief that scholarship shouldn’t be siloed in academia but rather serve as a bridge to practical reform.

“Translational criminology is so important because we want policymakers to be able to learn from and act on our research,” she said. “While it’s great being a bookworm, it’s also great developing those connections, and that contributes to my broader goal to get my research out there and explain it to policymakers in charge of the justice system.”

That’s what drew her to Florida Atlantic for her post-doc: the university’s strong focus on public outreach and community-based initiatives.

Dr. Meldrum says he is “very much looking forward to having Ms. Abreu work closely with the faculty on several grant-funded research projects that will shape criminal justice practice and policies in Southeast Florida and beyond.”