Sarah Fischer, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor and Academic Internship Coordinator, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Academic Credentials:

B.S., Iowa State University

B.A., Iowa State University

M.A., American University

Ph.D., American University

Short Bio

Dr. Fischer’s research focuses on stress prevention effectiveness for professionals in the criminal justice system, media coverage of crime, and the relationship between sexual violence and political participation in a comparative perspective. 

Dr. Fischer’s first research, completed as an undergraduate, led her to conduct oral histories of judges in Iowa. Those oral histories are now part of the Iowa Women’s Archives. Her undergraduate thesis examined representations of genocide in the United States and Europe. In graduate school, Dr. Fischer won numerous grants for research that investigated the discrimination that Muslim women often face due to veiling. 

In the classroom, Dr. Fischer endeavors to engage students with practical applications of theory and data analysis. Dr. Fischer has won the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ Junior Faculty Teaching Award, Marymount University’s Draghi Outstanding Faculty Award, and Marymount’s Inaugural Undergraduate Faculty Information Literacy Award. 

Dr. Fischer also serves as the president of Marymount University’s chapter of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. In 2025, she co-chaired the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Feminist Criminology. She now serves on the American Society of Criminology’s Membership Committee.

Teaching Areas: Research methods, gender and criminal justice, senior seminar

Research Interests: stress management for criminal justice professionals, media’s coverage of crime, sexual violence and political participation

Selected Publications (with links, if desired):

“Understanding the Nexus of Religion, Secularism, and the Harms of Women’s Mandatory Un/Covering.” 2023. In Religion and Gender-based Violence. Brenda Bartelink, Chia Longman, and Tamsin Bradley, eds. London: Routledge.

“Young Women, Sexual Violence, and the Pursuit of Justice Amid Weakening State Institutions: The Case of Turkey’s Campus Witches.” 2019. Youth Politics in the Middle East and North Africa 36 (1).  Link: https://pomeps.org/young-women-sexual-violence-and-the-pursuit-of-justice-amid-weakening-state-institutions-the-case-of-turkeys-campus-witches

Selected Presentations

“Portrayals of Native and Indigenous Police on Television: Stereotypes or Attempts at Authenticity?” Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology’s Annual Meeting, November 13-16, 2024. San Francisco, California.

“Teaching Self-Care and Stress Management in a First-Year Criminal Justice Course.” Paper presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, March 19-23, 2024. Chicago, Illinois.

“Increases in Femicide and Declines in State Responses Since the Covid-19 Pandemic: Can Social Movements Propel State-Supported Interventions?”

Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Virtual Research Meeting, February 8-9, 2024. Online.

“Portrayals of Officers’ Mental Health and Coping Skills in Television Crime Dramas.”  Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, November 15-18, 2023. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Attracting Women Voters to Islamist Parties: What Policies Produce Party Support?” Paper presented at the Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting, November 1-5, 2023. Montreal, Canada. […]

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Academic Credentials

BA, Marymount University
MA, Sam Houston State University
MSc, University of Liverpool
Ph.D., Old Dominion University

Biography

Her experience in the criminal justice field is varied and started at an early age as a member of a first-responder family. As an undergraduate, she interned with the Metropolitan Police Service in the United Kingdom. During her MSc and Ph.D. programs, she interned with a mid-sized police department, primarily in the detective division and with field forensics. This internship spanned just over six years, working anywhere from eight to 60 hours per week, dependent on agency needs and her teaching and class schedules. She has worked many crime scenes with forensic personnel and other investigators, informally consulted on several homicide investigations in various jurisdictions, assisted with instruction at both the police academy and in-service training, and has been a guest lecturer on practitioner partnerships to research stress and trauma at the FBI’s National Academy. She has also been Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) trained and has completed the three ICISF courses recommended for peer support and basic Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) teams. During the last year of her doctorate, she was an ORISE research fellow for the FBI assigned to the Behavioral Analysis Units (BAUs) under the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), where she worked on projects related to abducted and murdered children, violent crimes against adults, and mass shooting/mass casualty incidents. Throughout her career to date, she has built an extensive professional network, which she often leverages to benefit her students and the criminal justice program at Marymount University.
 
Dr. Farrell has served on the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Liberal Arts Core Committee (LACC) for Marymount University. Starting in the 2019-2020 academic year, Dr. Farrell is serving the university community as the IRB chair and also works with the Criminal Justice Living Learning Community (CJLLC), a partnership between the Criminal Justice Department and the Office of Campus Residential Services (OCRS). To the larger community, Dr. Farrell has consulted with several police and criminal justice agencies on topics related to investigations, stress, and resilience, as well as serving as a researcher and/or consultant on several Department of Justice projects. She is also on the General Section Reference Committee for the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, has provided editorial assistance for the Journal of Juvenile Justice, and reviews for several academic publications.
 
In her current position, she teaches undergraduate students in the Criminal Justice program and in the Forensics and Criminal Investigations minor, which she helped develop. Her research and teaching interests include homicide, criminal investigations, field forensics, human sexuality, policing, and stress, trauma, and resilience, with her dissertation seeking to holistically explore officer mental health and resilience, particularly in the context of police use of deadly force incidents. Her recent work demonstrates expanded interest in stress/trauma and resilience, particularly with regard to more broad investigative contexts and to the forensic science workforce.In addition to contributing to two FBI publications, her work can be found in Psychology of Men and Masculinities (forthcoming), Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, Gender Issues, Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, Homicide Studies, and International Criminal Justice Review. She also has written a chapter on the law enforcement perspective on mass shooting events in Jacklyn Schildkraut’s edited text, Mass Shootings in America: Understanding the Debates, Causes, and Responses, and has both run and co-taught three pre-conference workshops for the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), with a fourth accepted for the 2020 Annual Meeting of AAFS.
 

Other Information

Teaching Area

• Criminal Investigations
• Crime Scene Investigations and Forensic Science
• Policing
• Writing in Criminal Justice

Research Interests

• Mental Health and Resilience in Criminal Justice Professionals, specifically first responders, investigators, and forensic personnel
• Policing, specifically Use of Deadly Force, Officer Survivability and Resilience, and Officer Wellness
• Criminal Investigations, specifically Homicide Investigations, Investigative Best Practices, Sexual Behavior and Consent, Female Serial Murderers, Offender Classification and Crime Assessment, Field Forensics, and Forensic Science
• Qualitative Research Methods and Mixed Methods Research Design

Amanda L. Farrell is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Sciences, Mathematics, and Education at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, and has recently been a consultant to the Department of Justice working on the Needs Assessment of Forensic Laboratories.

She received her Ph.D. from Old Dominion University in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and holds a Master of Science in Investigative Psychology from the University of Liverpool, as well as a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice and Criminology from Sam Houston State University.She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling as a part-time student at Marymount University, where she also graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts degree as a Criminal Justice and Sociology double major.
 

Publications

• Peer Reviewed
  • Farrell, A.L., Monk-Turner, E., & Scallon, C.J.A. (2019). Utilizing Goffman’s concepts of impression management and stigma in understanding the aftermath of officer-involved shootings: Exploring the intersection with masculinity. Psychology of Men & Masculinities. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000238
  • Farrell, A.L., & Monk-Turner, E. (2018). Placing police shootings in context and implications for evidence based policy:  An exploration and descriptive analysis of these incidents in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia from 1990-2010.  Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2018.1526681
  • Farrell, A. L., Monk-Turner, E., Danner, M. J. E., & Scallon, C. J. A. (2018).  There’s no crying in police work:’ Exploring police shootings with feminist methods.  Gender Issues, 35(3), 220-235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-017-9198-5
  • Farrell, A. L, Keppel, R. D, & Titterington, V. (2013). Testing existing classifications of serial murder considering gender: An exploratory analysis of solo female serial murderers.  Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 10 (3), 268-288. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.1392
  • Farrell, A. L; Keppel, R. D; and Titterington, V. (2011). Lethal ladies: Revisiting what we know about female serial murderers.  Homicide Studies, 15 (3), 228-252. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767911415938
  • Collins, V; Farrell, A; Martin, F; McKee, J. and Monk-Turner, E. (2011).  The State of Coverage: The Media’s Representation of International Issues and State Crime.  International Criminal Justice Review, 21 (1), 5-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1057567711398306

 
Reprinted as Chapter 55 in Chambliss, W.J., & Moloney, C.J. (eds.). (2015) State Crime.Routledge: New York.
 

• Reports and Monographs
  • Department of Justice (DOJ). Needs Assessment of Forensic Laboratories: A Report to Congress. Washington, D.C.: Office of Justice Programs. https://www.justice.gov/olp/page/file/1228306/download
  • Farrell, A. L. (2002). Small Business Crime in London: An Independent Literature Review and Research Project. London, UK: Metropolitan Police Service.

• Other
  • Farrell, A.L. (2018). Issues and Challenges for Law Enforcement Responding to Mass Shootings.  In J. Schildkraut (Ed), Mass Shootings in America: Understanding the Debates, Causes, and Responses. ABC-CLIO.
  • Farrell, A. L. (2007). ABC Home Health Services (Medicare Fraud). In J. Gerber & E. L. Jensen (Eds.), Encyclopedia of white-collar crime. (Vol. 1, pp. 1-3). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
  • Farrell, A. L. (2005). Terrorism profile: Animal rights down under.  Crime & Justice International, 21 (89), 37.
  • Farrell, A. L. (2005). World in brief—in focus: Australia: Policing the Commonwealth.  Crime & Justice International, 21 (89), 43.

• Contributed to/Acknowledged in these Publications
  • Jarvis, J. & Scherer, J. A. (2015).  Mass Victimization: Promising Avenues for Prevention. Washington D.C: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  • BAU III. (2015). Crimes Against Children: Behavioral and Investigative Perspectives from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.  Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  • Kelly, R. J., Maghan, J., & Serio, J. (2005). Illicit trafficking: A reference handbook. ABC-CLIO.

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