Dr. Arynn Infante is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from Arizona State University. Her research focuses on race, ethnicity, crime, and justice with a special focus on testing theories of racial inequality in justice system responses. Recently, she published a study in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies that developed and validated a 20-item scale of perceived Latino threat across two samples. Notably, her research shows that negative perceptions of Latinos as threatening the economic and political power, safety, and opportunities of whites is associated with greater support for punitive crime and border control policies that disproportionately disadvantage racial and ethnic minorities. Overall, the goal of Dr. Infante’s research agenda is to shed light on how harmful minority threat perceptions develop and change over time and what implications they hold for the treatment of minorities in this country, both by the justice system and society at large.
In addition to her research on race and ethnicity, Dr. Infante also has an interest in quantitative methods and corrections. She spent two years interviewing men incarcerated in medium, close, and maximum custody prisons. She is currently analyzing data from this project to assess the extent to which inmates adhered to and mobilized (sometimes through violence) an informal racial code.