Dr. Kelly M. Thames joins the App State sociology faculty this year as an assistant professor. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from North Carolina State University. She also holds an M.S. in Sociology and a B.A. in Criminology from North Carolina State University. Guided by her passion for criminological theory construction and theory testing and her commitment to issues of social justice, her current research primarily explores the effects of global neoliberalization on cross-national rates of violent crime. More specifically, she is interested in investigating the relationship between neoliberal shifts in social welfare policy and rates of criminal behavior in a variety of political contexts, including western democratic and post-communist countries. She is also interested in the relationship between crime and public perceptions of social justice in the wake of welfare retrenchment.
As a quantitative researcher with a passion for theory, her exploration of these issues have incorporated multilevel and longitudinal tests of theories whose concepts are hypothesized to buffer the harmful effects of economic deprivation on criminal offending. This line of research has led to the development of an original theory of crime, conditioned social support theory, which integrates theories of social justice into an elaboration of social support theories.
Welcome to App State, Dr. Thames!
Thames
