Dr. Kierkus was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and grew up in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Windsor where he received his B.A. degree in Criminology. Dr. Kierkus then completed an M.A. in Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, and a second M.A., as well as a Ph.D., in Criminal Justice at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. He has been teaching for approximately 10 years.
Dr. Kierkus' research and writing is focused on the role of family, gender and relationships in the causation of delinquency. He is also interested in applied criminal justice policy issues; particularly as they relate to youth crime and firearms control. Dr. Kierkus teaches a wide variety of courses at GVSU including introduction to criminal justice, qualitative and quantitative research methods, graduate level data analysis, criminology (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels), program and policy evaluation (also at both the graduate and undergraduate levels), youth crime, juvenile justice policy, and the senior capstone.
Recent Scholarly Publications
B. R. Johnson, C. Yalda and C. A. Kierkus, “Property Crimes at O’Hare InternationalAirport Post 9/11: The Impact of Increased Security.” In Press, Journal of Applied Security Research, 2009.
C. A. Kierkus, Sex, Dating, and Delinquency: Do Precocious Relationship Lead to Crime? LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, El Paso: TX, 2009.
C. A. Kierkus and J. D. Hewitt, “The Contextual Nature of the Family Structure/Delinquency Relationship.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 123-132, Vol. 37 (2), 2009.
J. D. Hewitt, R. M. Regoli and C. A. Kierkus, “Adolescent Risk-Taking as a Justification for Paternalistic Legal Policy.” K. Padmaja (ed.), The Icfai University Press, 2007: 105-128, Reprint of article from Justice Policy Journal.
Recent Popular Media Publications
C. Kierkus and C. Hilinski, “Sexting Editorial was Disappointing.” Letter to the Grand Rapids Press.September 19, 2009.
C. Kierkus, “Lowering .08 is a Bad Idea.”Letter to the Windsor Star.June 25, 2009.
C. Kierkus, “’Pistol Free Zones’ Make Little Sense; Many Valid Reasons to Carry Firearms in National Parks.” Special to the Grand Rapids Press.May 1, 2009.
C. Kierkus, “Vick Deserves Maximum Penalty for Dog Fighting.” Special to the Grand Rapids Press. September 1, 2007.
Scholarly Papers Under Review
B. Johnson, C. A. Kierkus and C. Yalda, “Who Skips?An Analysis of Failure to Appears.”
In addition to his scholarly activities, Dr. Kierkus is the faculty advisor for the GVSU photography club.If you are interested in finding out more information about the club please click on the following link: http://gvsuphotoclub.wordpress.com/
