Rate My Professor Ryan Randa

Ryan Randa is a Professor and Director of Online Graduate Programs in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Sam Houston State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati in 2009, with a dissertation titled 'The Impact of Disorder and Fear on the Routine Activities of School Children.' He previously received an M.S. in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati in 2003 and a B.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 2002. Randa joined Sam Houston State University in 2012 as a Visiting Assistant Professor, advancing to Assistant Professor from 2015 to 2019 and Associate Professor from 2019 to the present, with a recent promotion to full Professor. Prior appointments include Assistant Professor at the University of Northern Colorado from 2009 to 2011 and Instructor at Penn State Harrisburg from 2011 to 2012. He also serves as Deputy Director of the Institute for Homeland Security since 2024, Research Director there since 2022, and Research Associate at the Crime Victims Institute since 2015.

Randa's research specializations encompass crime events and victimization, criminological theory, crime prevention and public policy, communities and crime, fear of crime, and environmental criminology. He has published extensively in leading journals, including forthcoming articles such as 'Identifying and explaining the harmful effects of stalking victimization: An analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey' (Reyns, Randa, & Brady, Justice Quarterly), 'Identifying Risky Places on Campus: The Impact of LSC and Fear of Crime' (Bostrom, Kramer, & Randa, Crime & Delinquency), and 'Homicide hotspots in Chicago: Examining spatiotemporal patterns longitudinally across police beats' (Gullion, Comer, & Randa, Crime & Delinquency). Other key works include 'Victim reactions to being stalked: Examining the effects of perceived offender characteristics and motivations' (2022, Behavioral Sciences & the Law), 'Safe places to learn: Advances in school safety research and practice' (2021, School Psychology Review), and 'College as a risk factor for victimization: Results from the National Crime Victimization Survey' (2022, Victims & Offenders). As co-Editor of the Journal of School Violence, he contributes to advancing scholarship in school safety. His scholarly impact is evidenced by over 1,100 citations. Randa has received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (2018) and the Faculty Student Impact Award from the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice (2025).