Samuel E DeWitt

Samuel E DeWitt is a senior researcher at AIR. Previously, he spent 7 years as a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s (UNC Charlotte) Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology. During his time at UNC Charlotte, Dr. DeWitt served as a co-PI for a National Institute of Justice (NIJ)-funded project examining police officer use-of-force decisions in a state-of-the-art simulator. He also led two teams of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups through a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

Dr. DeWitt is also the principal investigator for a study funded by the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services investigating the impact of public defender availability on local jail populations. Prior to his time at UNC Charlotte, Dr. DeWitt contributed as a research partner or co-PI to various other funded research projects, including an NIJ-funded evaluation of criminal background check systems in New York State and a Bureau of Justice Assistance-funded evaluation of the SMART probation initiative in New Jersey.

Dr. DeWitt has a growing body of work addressing the impact of criminal record stigma on employment and other life domains such as social relationships. Dr. DeWitt also focuses on the application of advanced quantitative methodologies to better understand the impacts of criminal justice policy. His work on these topics is published in some of the leading journals in his field, including Criminology, the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Criminology & Public Policy. He will continue to grow his expertise in this research area through his work with the National Reentry Resource Center at AIR.