School of Public Affairs
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
Phone: (719) 255-5121 or (800) 990-8227 ext. 5121
Fax: (719) 255-4183
E-mail: abeattie@uccs.edu

Downloadable CV

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Bio:

April Beattie, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology and Crime, Law, and Justice at Pennsylvania State University, has joined the Criminal Justice faculty of the School of Public Affairs as an Instructor.

Ms. Beattie graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a BA in Crime and Justice Studies with a minor in Government and Politics. She earned her master's in Criminal Justice from George Washington University in 2008. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Crime, Law, and Justice at Pennsylvania State University. Her areas of interest for research are juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice, institutions of social control, fear and perceived risk of crime, crime on campus, and the child welfare system. Ms Beattie has published research on "Adolescent Work Experiences and Family Formation Behavior" in the Journal of Research on Adolescence and on "Fear of Crime on Campus: Gender Differences in Use of Self-protective Behaviours at an Urban University" in Security Journal. Ms. Beattie' s dissertation research is on how student fear of crime, perceived risk of victimization, and behavioral adaptations vary across different types of campus-community environments, and how individual-level predictors of student fear, perceived risk, and adaptations may vary in their effects across different types of campus-community environments.

Ms. Beattie, prior to beginning graduate school, worked full-time with juvenile offenders as a Deputy Court Clerk in the Irving, Texas Teen Court. This voluntary alternative disposition program for misdemeanor defendants aged 10-high school employed a youth court model and offered restorative justice sentences as a way for teenagers to take responsibility for their crimes. She has also volunteered extensively with at-risk youth. Her community efforts focus on advocating for abused and neglected children through work with Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Dallas County and work with female delinquents enrolled in Short Term Adolescent Residential Treatment Program (START) a court-mandated cognitive-behavioral residential treatment program for the Dallas County Juvenile Department.

Ms. Beattie brings with her teaching experience. At Penn State she served as a research assistant, teaching assistant and graduate instructor. Ms. Beattie's teaching philosophy is built on a foundation of four primary teaching objectives: "1) ensuring content mastery, 2) improving critical thinking and writing skills, 3) fostering intellectual curiosity and diversity, and 4) helping students understand the significant impact that criminology has on their own lives and the greater social world." In 2011 Ms. Beattie won the Harold F. Martin Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, given to the top ten graduate student teachers at Penn State. "I view student performance as a gauge of how well I am achieving my goals in the classroom...I maintain close contact with faculty mentors regarding my teaching. I find that the best advice and assistance come from these experts and most are very willing to share their insights."

On a personal note, Ms. Beattie is a newlywed (she and her husband Brett were married in August) enjoys traveling, delicious ethnic food (especially Mexican, as she is originally from Texas),

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