Senior Research Associate - School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior Research Associate will serve as a key member of the research team for a National Institute of Justice funded collaboration between Northeastern University and the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department (KCPD). The research project involves the analysis of automated vehicle locator (AVL) data and body-worn camera (BWC) video to analyze police patrol activity and police-citizen interactions. The Senior Research Associate will work remotely. Quarterly trips to Kansas City Police Headquarters will be required (and funded) to participate in research team training activities.  

The Senior Research Associate will have primary responsibility for collecting data, maintaining project databases, and assisting with the qualitative analysis of BWC video. This will involve extracting data from KCPD databases, processing data to operationalize variables of interest, and coding BWC video to ensure inter-rater reliability. The Senior Research Associate will work with the KCPD project liaisons to identify any additional data sources of value for the project and collaborate with different KCPD offices as needed to establish data collection protocols. 

The Senior Research Associate will collaborate with senior members of the research team and review the work of graduate student researchers. Other responsibilities include assisting with the presentation of research findings to academic and public audiences and co-authoring technical reports, scholarly journal articles, and policy briefs. 

This is a grant-funded, one year position. 

The College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) combines Northeastern University’s signature approach to experiential learning with liberal arts education, interdisciplinary research, and community engagement, both locally and globally.  

The College comprises 17 academic units, including two schools, seven departments, and eight interdisciplinary programs, as well as 15 research centers and institutes. Our faculty connects liberal arts education with the challenges of our time, and fosters ethical reasoning and critical thought, with attention to the enduring significance of history, literature, and culture.  CSSH promotes inquiry with global perspectives and a culture of inclusion across interdisciplinary clusters of expertise including: Resilience, Sustainability, Health, and Equity; Cultural studies, Governance, and Globalization; and Network Science, Computational Social Science, Digital Humanities, and Data Ethics.  

CSSH is strongly committed to fostering excellence through diversity and promotes a culture of inclusion for our students, faculty, and staff. Guided by a Strategic Plan on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, the College enthusiastically welcomes applications from members of groups underrepresented in higher education administration.  

Prior experience in conducting social science research in police department settings and conducting rigorous mixed-methods research projects is required. Strong database management skills are required. Prior experience conducting observational analysis of video data strongly preferred.