Volkan Topalli
Professor Social Science Faculty- Biography
Volkan Topalli is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia State University. He received his PhD in Experimental Social Psychology from Tulane University in 1998. Previous to arriving at GSU in 2000 he completed a National Science Foundation research fellowship through the National Consortium on Violence Research. He is the co-Chair of the Crime & Violence Prevention Policy Initiative, housed at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He also holds faculty associate status with the Partnership of Urban Health Research at Georgia State University, 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 violence in urban settings, with a particular focus on the decision-making of street criminals. To pursue these interests he employs a multi-method approach that includes experimental, quantitative, and qualitative (interview-based) methodologies 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 12 years. His research has been supported by such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, The Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institute of Justice. He is the co-editor of Criminological Theory: Readings and Retrospectives and the author of peer-reviewed research in such outlets as Criminology, Justice Quarterly, The British Journal of Criminology, Punishment & Society, and Criminal Justice & Behavior.
Classes Taught (Spring 2019)
Scientific Perspectives on Global Problems (PERS 2002)