Research Director of the Liberty Initiative, a student-focused collaboration between the Lee College and Pompea College of Business.
Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY, 2011
M.S. in Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, 2002
B.A./M.A. in Psychology, Moscow State University (Russia), 1998
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo is an expert in crime trends and patterns, the causes of violence, juvenile crime, and the connections between poverty and violence.
Her research focuses on the structural causes of violence and homicide: poverty, education, and family structure. She also studies the interplay of these factors with family-level issues, like child abuse and neglect, and with individual circumstances, including mental health issues, tendencies towards risky behaviors, and life valuation.
See MoreShe has also conducted a systematic analysis of major criminological theories and their empirical tests to explore the role of poverty in explaining crime. With National Institute of Justice funding, she examined how changes in school accountability laws impacted juvenile delinquency.
With the support of the National Institute of Justice, Dr. Tcherni-Buzzeo also examined whether the decreases in violent crime in recent decades could be attributed to the rising rate of psychotropic medications being prescribed to children and adolescents to treat ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, and other mental health disorders.
Analyzing state-level data over the last 25 years and using official statistics and findings from longitudinal surveys of youth, Dr. Tcherni-Buzzeo found no clear evidence that psychiatric medications played a role in the decrease in violent crime.
Her study found that two factors did play a role in the decreasing violent crime rate: decreases in child poverty at the state level – that were associated with state-level decreases in juvenile violence – and increases in school-based services for children with learning and cognitive disabilities that led to decreases in juvenile violence.
Dr. Tcherni-Buzzeo’s findings correlate with current studies that show truancy prevention programs decrease delinquency and crime among adolescents. She continues to study the impact of school-based services. Her objective is to develop findings that can be translated into effective policy solutions.
She has published extensively, authoring many peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and commentaries. Her work includes the chapter "The Great American Crime Decline: Possible Explanations" in the Handbook on Crime and Deviance; "The Dark Figure of Online Property Crime: Is Cyberspace Hiding a Crime Wave?" in Justice Quarterly; and "Food for Thought: Ideas for Those Teaching Criminology" in ACJS Today. A frequent op-ed contributor on topics including gun control and crime rates and juvenile crime, she is regularly asked by the media to speak on issues around violent crime.
She received her B.A. and M.A. from Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia, her M.S. from Northeastern University, and her Ph.D. from the University at Albany’s (SUNY) School of Criminal Justice.
Tcherni-Buzzeo, M. (2019). The "Great American Crime Decline": Possible explanations. In M.D. Krohn et al. (Eds.), Handbook on Crime and Deviance (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326020920_The_Great_American_Crime_Decline_Possible_Explanations
Pyrczak F., & Tcherni-Buzzeo, M. (2018). Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic evaluation. Routledge (Taylor & Francis). ISBN: 978-0815365662
https://digitalcommons.newhaven.edu/criminaljustice-books/7/
Tcherni-Buzzeo, M. (2018). Measuring juvenile crime to compare trends among U.S. states: Secondary data analysis. SAGE Research Methods Cases. 10.4135/9781526436962
http://methods.sagepub.com/case/measuring-juvenile-crime-compare-trends-us-states-secondary-data-analysis
Gottschalk, P., & Tcherni-Buzzeo, M. (2017). Reasons for gaps in crime reporting: The case of white-collar criminals investigated by private fraud examiners in Norway. Deviant Behavior, 38(3), 267-281.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.2016.1196993
Tcherni, M., Davies, A., Lopes, G., & Lizotte, A. (2016). The dark figure of online property crime: Is cyberspace hiding a crime wave? Justice Quarterly, 33(5), 890-911.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2014.994658
Bystrova, E., & Tcherni, M. (2015). Juvenile Justice in Russia. In M. D. Krohn & J. Lane (Eds.), The Handbook of Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice (pp.40-48). Wiley Blackwell.
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Handbook+of+Juvenile+Delinquency+and+Juvenile+Justice-p-9781118513170
Tcherni, M. (2014). Structural determinants of homicide. In A. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer.
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_4131
Tcherni, M. (2011). Structural determinants of homicide: The Big Three. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 27(4), 475-496.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10940-011-9134-x
Tcherni, M. (2018). IDEA-mandated school services for children with disabilities as an important factor in juvenile violence declines. American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
Tcherni, M., Spano, R., & O’Brien, D. (2016). The role of poverty in explaining crime. American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
O’Brien, D., Tcherni, M., & Spano, R. (2016). Operationalizing delinquency: An analysis of the most common methodologies used for criminological theory testing. American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
Tcherni-Buzzeo M. (2015). DOJ NIJ Data Resources Program.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, associate professor and director of the Ph.D. program in criminal justice, says crimes are most likely to happen between people that know each other than being perpetrated by a stranger.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, associate professor of criminal justice, says while other violent juvenile crimes are down, homicides by juveniles with guns are up.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, associate professor of criminal justice, talks about four teens arrested for the second time for using a ghost gun in a carjacking. One of the teens was wearing an ankle monitor for a case that’s still pending.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, associate professor and director of the Ph.D. in Criminal Justice program, says it is hard to judge a police chief by the crimes in an area, explaining other factors, such as a change in population and societal trends, have more influence.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, associate professor and director of the Ph.D. Criminal Justice Program, comments on the rise in homicides in 2020 and where it is taking place.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, an associate professor of criminal justice who is an expert on crime trends and patterns, was quoted in a feature about declining crime rates. The decrease in crime, she says, is part of a broader pattern of centuries of declining human violence.
In the Media
Maria Tcherni-Buzzeo, associate professor of criminal justice, shares her thoughts on what could be causing the increase in hate crimes in Washington, D.C..
The FBI released its crime statistics for 2016 last week, and there has already been a lot of discussion and commentary about the increases in murder and violent crime rates for a second year in a row.
Each year when the Federal Bureau of Investigation releases its statistics on crime, dozens of similar-sounding headlines pop up: "Crime rate down".
A Gallup polls shows fear about violent crime at a 15-year high.