Jillian Peterson

Dr. Jillian Peterson is a Professor of Criminology at Hamline University and Director of their Forensic Psychology Program. She is also Executive Director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center, a nonpartisan center focused on reducing violence through accessible and actionable data and research. Dr. Peterson started her career as a special investigator in New York City, researching the life histories of men facing the death penalty. She earned her PhD in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine, and has led large-scale research studies on mental illness and crime, mass shootings, crisis intervention, and school violence prevention. She was the Principal Investigator on a three-year National Institute of Justice-funded project studying the life histories of mass shooters, which resulted in an award-winning book, The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic. She is a regular contributor to outlets like CNN, The New York Times, and National Public Radio.