Kristen DeVall
Professor
Kristen E. DeVall is the co-director of the National Treatment Court Resource Center (NTCRC) & a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She received her PhD in sociology from Western Michigan University and has conducted evaluations of numerous treatment court programs and other criminal justice initiatives in various states for over 20 years. Recent publications have appeared in Crime & Delinquency, Evaluation & Program Planning, Federal Probation, Sociological Imagination, The Journal of Drug Issues, The Prison Journal, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, and Substance Use and Misuse. Dr. DeVall has also garnered over $22 million in grant funding from BJA, OJJDP, SAMHSA, as well as state and local entities to support various treatment courts & other criminal justice programs. In addition, she worked as a case manager for a community corrections program for seven years. Providing direct services to justice-involved individuals allowed her to see firsthand how the system operates and identify opportunities for system-level and policy change. Overall, her work seeks to bridge the gap between academia and practitioners, as well as influence the development of evidence-based policies and practices.
Education
PhD in Sociology, Western Michigan University
MA in Sociology, Western Michigan University
BA in Political Science & Sociology, Western Michigan University
Specialization in Teaching
issues in social justice
social problems
methods of social research
methods of data analysis
juvenile delinquency
sociology of deviance
public sociology/public criminology
evaluation, methods, & social policy
Research Interests
treatment courts
program evaluation
survey research
qualitative research
quantitative research
public and applied sociology
Honors & Awards
October 2024 - UNCW James F. Merritt $5 Million Dollar Club inductee
September 2022 - UNCW Inaugural Research Collaboration Award recipient
October 2020 - UNCW James F. Merritt $1 Million Dollar Club inductee
October 2020 - Western Michigan University 2020 College of Arts Alumni Achievement Award recipient