Adam Dobrin, Ph.D.

Dr. Adam Dobrin earned his Bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, both his Master’s and Doctorate in Criminology from the University of Maryland, and his policing certificate from Indian River State College. He is a Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University, a Senior Research Associate International Collaborative Partner of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia) Global Research Network, and a Visiting Fellow in the Institute of Public Safety, Crime and Justice at the University of Northampton (UK).

His research has covered many topics, including issues of homicide causation, violence data sources, issues of correctional health care policy, conditions of confinement in juvenile justice residential facilities, and various issues of policing. His research has been published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Criminal Justice and Behavior, International Journal of Police Science and Management, Journal of Criminal Justice, American Journal of Public Health, and Pediatrics among other journals.

Dr. Dobrin has years of non-profit leadership experience, including co-founding and holding leadership positions in two international health-care policy entities. Through these affiliations he presented his research at the US Capitol for the Congressional Briefing on Juvenile Justice and later the Congressional Briefing Predicting and Preventing Homicide and Other Violence. Dr. Dobrin was an Academic Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, where part of his Fellowship involved overseas travel for an intensive immersion in the world of terrorism, and the ways the political, diplomatic, military, intelligence, and criminal justice systems respond to or prevent it. Additionally, he traveled to the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center at New Mexico Tech to become a certified instructor on the prevention and response to suicide bombing incidents, and in addition he has also taken multiple Incident Command System courses presented by FEMA. He is also a founding member of the SCCJ’s Decision-Making Simulation Lab team, where they use cutting-edge technology to conduct training and research in applied decision-making situations.

Dr. Dobrin is currently exploring various issues relating to volunteer policing. In both academic and professional settings, he has published numerous articles and presented at conferences on volunteer policing topics. He is a Certified Volunteer Policing Leader and serves as the 2nd Vice President for the preeminent international organization in volunteer policing, the Volunteer Law Enforcement Officers Alliance. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Reserve & Volunteer Law Enforcement Committee in the Small & Rural Law Enforcement Executives' Association. He won FAU’s first Presidential Award for Outstanding Faculty-Led Community Engagement for Engaged Service in 2017 and the 2022 Faculty Service Award for his volunteer work as a road patrol deputy with his local sheriff’s office’s reserve unit.