ASC Division on People of Color and Crime

2023 Coramae Richey Mann Award Recipient

Deena A. Isom, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of African American Studies and Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina. Her research aims to bring marginalized voices and lived experiences center to the understandings of the causes and consequences of negative and harmful behaviors and entanglement with the criminal legal system through the advancement of criminological theory, critical perspectives, and intersectional methodologies. Her work has appeared in numerous outlets such as the Race and Justice, Feminist Criminology, Critical Sociology, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Social Science & Medicine, and Youth & Society. She is also the author of the recent book, Gratuitous Angst in White America: A Theory of Whiteness and Crime with Routledge as well as the newly appointed editor of Race and Justice. She is a University of South Carolina McCausland Fellow and Garnet Apple Award recipient as well as an Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Minorities and Women Section’s Becky Tatum Excellence in Scholarship Awardee.