Christopher Contreras
Area of Expertise
Communities and Crime, Criminological Theory, Drug Abuse, Drug Markets, Quantitative Methods
Degrees
PhD, University of California - Irvine
Professional Publications & Contributions
- Pontell, Henry N., Jianhong Liu, Christopher Contreras, Soi Wan Donna Leong, and Li Huang (2022). “Occupational Crimes in Casinos: Employee Theft in Macau, China.” Crime, Law and Social Change, 78(3), 241–270.
- Lee, Narae and Christopher Contreras (2021). “Neighborhood Walkability and Crime: Does the Relationship Vary by Crime Type?” Environment and Behavior, 53(7), 753–786.
- Contreras, Christopher and John R. Hipp (2020). “Drugs, Crime, Space, and Time: A Spatiotemporal Examination of Drug Activity and Crime Rates.” Justice Quarterly, 37(2), 187–209.
- Contreras, Christopher (2017). “A Block-Level Analysis of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and Crime in the City of Los Angeles.” Justice Quarterly, 34(6), 1069–1095.
Additional Information
View Professor Contreras’s Curriculum Vitae
Current Research
Professor Contreras's research interests focus on the application of criminological theory to the ecological study of social problems, specifically antisocial deviant behaviors such as criminal violence, drug abuse/drug trafficking, and suicide mortality. He undertakes this research agenda using spatial techniques that model geographic patterns of crime and population health. His research has won awards from the American Society of Criminology, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Western Society of Criminology.