Grant Drawve to Lead New Crime and Security Data Analytics Lab in Fulbright College

Grant Drawve

Grant Drawve, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology since 2016, will begin his new role as associate director of the newly formed Crime and Security Data Analytics Lab at the University of Arkansas beginning July 1.

The lab will be housed in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences‘ Terrorism Research Center, a center for research on issues of terrorism and homeland security. The center has primarily been funded by federal grants from the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security.

The center’s director, Jeff Gruenewald, said he views Drawve’s new role as an opportunity to enhance the scope of the center’s research portfolio and student training in crime analysis.

“We are thrilled that Dr. Drawve will be joining us to meet the growing needs of our research partners and our students who are preparing for careers in law enforcement and intelligence analysis,” Gruenewald said. “Additionally, there are plans to highlight Dr. Drawve’s expertise in the development of proficiency in crime analysis certificate at the undergraduate level.”

Drawve received the Fulbright College Master Researcher Award in 2019 and has continued to gain recognition for his work in areas of crime analysis, including spatial analysis, crime forecasting, and risk terrain modeling. His published work, including the co-authored textbook Foundations of Crime Analysis (2018), fills a need in the emerging field of crime analysis for more innovative approaches to analyzing and visualizing crime data.

As associate director of the new lab, Drawve will continue to collaborate with researchers across the university to cultivate research partnerships in Arkansas and more broadly.

“Public agencies and corporations around the state, and across the world, are collecting more and more data on crime and security-related issues than they know what do with some of the time,” Drawve said. “The lab will serve as an identifiable hub at the university for these organizations to contact so that we can more effectively meet their analytical needs.”

Drawve will work with Katie Ratcliff,  associate director of the Terrorism Research Center, to organize additional training opportunities for undergraduate interns and graduate students in various approaches to crime analysis. Hosting between 10 and 20 internships every semester, the center has become one of the most popular internship opportunities on campus.

Students who have interned with the center go on to careers in law, law enforcement, intelligence, and other fields of criminal justice.

“Having the Crime and Security Data Analytics Lab in the Terrorism Research Center is a great opportunity to broaden the scope of training for our students. Our hope is that even more students from programs across the university will consider interning with us,” Ratcliff said.

​A version of this story also appeared in the U of A’s Newswire publication.