Profile
Responsibilities
Lead Investigator, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
Research
His research interests include identifying effective strategies for reducing crime/violence,
policing, domestic terrorism, and media coverage of crime and justice. His current
research projects include a National Institute of Justice funded project examining the impact
of a violence reduction strategy on gun violence in Pittsburgh, a study that is building
a national database of criminal incidents involving far right extremists, and another project
building a terrorism data archive (www.icpsr.umich.edu/TPDRC). Professor Chermak is
the author of Victims in the News: Crime and the American News Media (Westview Press, 1995),
in which he examines how the news production process affects the ways in which crime,
victims, and criminal justice are presented to the public. His second book, Searching for a Demon:
The Media Construction of the Militia Movement (Northeastern University Press, 2002),
explores media coverage of the militia movement following the Oklahoma City bombing.
Courses Taught
CJ 110: Introduction to Criminal Justice
CJ 491: Topics in Criminal Justice - Crime and the Media
CJ 904: Criminal Justice Organizations and Processes