Rebecca Dunlea

Expertise

Prosecution; Courtroom decision making; Social inequality; Applied research; Agency-level criminal justice policy

Education

• Ph.D., Criminology & Criminal Justice (2018), University of Maryland
• M.A., Criminology & Criminal Justice (2015), University of Maryland
• B.A., Psychology & Economics (2012), Wellesley College

Biosketch

Rebecca Dunlea, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research focuses on inequalities and inefficiencies in courtroom outcomes, most notably those related to prosecution, racial and ethnic differences, and agency-level justice policy. Her work relies heavily on researcher-practitioner partnerships and the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand court actor decision making and guide reforms. Dunlea’s work has been published in outlets such as Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Criminology & Public Policy. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland, and her B.A. from Wellesley College.

Selected Publications

• Dunlea, R.R. (2022). “No idea whether he's Black, White, or purple”: Colorblindness and cultural scripting in prosecution. Criminology, 60(2), 237-262.
• Kutateladze, B.L., Dunlea, R.R., Liu, L., & Arndt, M. (2022). A test of the bifurcation hypothesis in prosecutorial diversion. Criminology & Public Policy, 21(2), 359-378.
• Liu, L., Dunlea, R.R., & Kutateladze, B.L. (2022). Time for Time: Uncovering Case Processing Duration as a Source of Punitiveness. Crime & Delinquency, 68(9), 1375-1401.
• Richardson, R., & Kutateladze, B.L. (2021). Tempering expectations: A qualitative study of prosecutorial reform. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 58(1), 41-73.
• Lee, J.G., & Richardson, R.L. (2020). Race, ethnicity, and trial avoidance: A multilevel analysis. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 31(3), 422-451.

Selected Contracts, Fellowships, Grants and Sponsored Research

• Combating Violent Crime in Jacksonville through Strategic Partnerships with Communities, Law Enforcement, and Data Scientists. Subaward funded by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance (2021). Principal investigator. (Primary agency awardee Jacksonville State Attorney’s Office).
• Developing and Testing the Community-Prosecutor-Researcher Partnership Model in Two Florida Jurisdictions. Funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies (2021). Co-principal investigator.
• Implementing Prosecutorial Performance Indicators in Colorado: Developing a Statewide Model of Reform. Funded by Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative (2021). Co-principal investigator.
• Research and Technical Assistance to Advance Prosecutorial Performance. Funded by the MacArthur Foundation (2021). Co-principal investigator.
• Research and Technical Assistance to Advance Prosecutorial Performance. Funded by the MacArthur Foundation (2019). Co-principal investigator.
• Advancing Prosecutorial Research on Charging Discretion. Funded by the Charles Koch Foundation (2019). Principal investigator.