Volkan Topalli

Ph.D., Tulane University

Violence in Urban Settings

Volkan Topalli is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He received his PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from Tulane University in 1998. Previous to arriving at Georgia State University (GSU) in 2000 he completed a National Science Foundation research fellowship through the National Consortium on Violence Research. He also holds faculty associate status with the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Group at GSU, the Partnership of Urban Health Research at GSU, the Center for Injury Control at Emory University, and the International Centre for Research on Forensic Psychology at Portsmouth University, United Kingdom. His scholarly research addresses decision-making of offenders with a focus on violence in urban settings. To pursue these interests he employs a multi-method approach that includes experimental, quantitative, and qualitative (interview-based) approaches with active, noninstitutionalized hardcore street offenders (robbers, carjackers, drug dealers). He has conducted roughly 400 interviews with offenders in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Atlanta over the past 22 years. His work has recently expanded this agenda to the study of emerging forms of crime and future crime, including the role of emerging technologies and exponential technological change. His research has been supported by such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, The Centers for Disease Control, The UK Home Office, and the National Institute of Justice. He the author of peer-reviewed research in such outlets as Criminology, The Annual Review of Criminology, Justice Quarterly, The Journal of Quantitative Criminology, The British Journal of Criminology, The Journal of Law and Economics, and Criminal Justice & Behavior.