KINGSTON, R.I. – Nov. 17, 2025 – Almost a year after she received the Young Scholar award from the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Public Opinion & Policy, University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Luzi Shi will join the organization’s executive board as an executive board member to further broaden the influence of research on public opinion about crime and criminal justice.

Shi, who has taught in the University’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice since 2023, focuses her research on understanding how stereotypes, misperceptions, and negative emotions shape criminal behavior and crime control policy preferences. Her work includes understanding how biases, stigma, media, and political rhetoric shape crime control policies, as well as how they impact marginalized and disadvantaged social groups.

The Division of Public Opinion & Policy provides an intellectual home for social scientists interested in the study of the nature, sources, and policy impacts of public opinion about crime and criminal justice. The organization aims to provide forums for disseminating scientific knowledge and engaging in public criminology. The division shares public opinion and policy research on topics such as policing, corrections, and offender decision-making with concerned stakeholders, ranging from community members to criminal justice practitioners.

In particular, Shi will be the chair of the Communications Committee for DPOP. She will be responsible for securing sponsorship for the division, broadcasting the achievements of DPOP members on social media, and keeping members engaged through frequent interactions via e-mails. 

Last year, Shi became only the second URI criminology and criminal justice faculty member to be awarded the Young Scholar Award, joining Chelsea Farrell, who received the Robert J. Bursik Junior Scholar Award in 2022. Shi will serve on the Division of Public Opinion & Policy’s executive council for two years to support the division’s work.

Shi says public opinion has a significant impact on how crime control policies are shaped within democratic societies, such as the United States. That can potentially lead to policies being created based on inaccurate information and scientific evidence. For example, Shi shares that many people in the U.S. believe the crime rate is always higher than that of last year, whereas in reality the nationwide crime rate has been dropping since the 1990s. 

Crime control policies can impact people well beyond just the individuals serving their sentences, she notes. “A lot of policies are actually being shaped by people’s misperception of crime, and their negative emotions, such as anger and fear,” Shi said. “We should think about what it means when we incarcerate a person and their prospect for rehabilitation, what it means to their families and communities, and how much money we actually put into incarceration versus other less costly policy alternatives that also ensure public safety.”

News media and how that information is shared, whether it’s individual public consumption or shared for civic engagement—especially on social media—also can sway public opinion on crime. Shi says crime policies should be created based on facts and evidence and what laws are in place to mitigate them, rather than news headlines. 

“We found in a recent analysis of the presidential State of the Union address that when the speech discussed crime, newspapers and TV networks quickly picked up on it,” Shi said. “Then members of the public might say, ‘Oh, crime is the most salient issue for the nation,’ based on what was said and reported. Social media may have accelerated that process, but even before that, newspapers and TV served as a primary way for the public to understand and respond to crime issues.”