Christopher Sullivan serves as the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Youth Crime and Violence and the chair of UMSL’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He was one of four newly named fellows of the American Society of Criminology in 2026. (Photo by Derik Hotlmann)
The American Society of Criminology has welcomed Christopher Sullivan, the E. Desmond Lee Professor of Youth Crime and Violence and chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, into its list of ASC Fellows.
The designation recognizes individuals for their scholarly contributions to the field of criminology and distinction within the discipline. Sullivan was one of four fellows named in 2026 and will be recognized during the organization’s annual meeting, scheduled to be held Nov. 18-21 in Chicago.
“It means a great deal,” Sullivan said. “It’s pretty surreal to be on this list with people that I’ve long looked up to.”
Sullivan has been involved in ASC throughout his professional career. He remembers attending his first annual meeting as a new doctoral student at Rutgers University in 2001 after completing his master’s at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He helped plan the 2015 annual meeting and has served on several committees tasked with selecting honorees for ASC Awards. He also served as the interim editor of Criminology, the society’s academic journal, and was an executive counselor from 2022 until 2025.
With his selection, Sullivan is also joining a renowned group of faculty from UMSL who’ve been named ASC Fellows, including the late Bob Bursik, the late Richard Rosenfeld, Richard Wright, Janet Lauritsen and Finn Esbensen were all named fellows during their time at UMSL.
“It’s a pretty amazing group to be in,” Sullivan said, “in terms of their scholarship and what they’ve done for the discipline more broadly – what they’ve done for students and colleagues.”
Sullivan has produced an extensive list of scholarly works in his own right, having authored or co-authored two books and more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Much of his work focuses on delinquency, a topic Sullivan said he first became interested in while growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts, and that was the subject of one of his favorite courses as an undergraduate student.
“I think I probably took it either my freshman or sophomore year, and it was just really intriguing from the standpoint of how you balance an appropriate way to respond to delinquent behavior – which in most cases kind of comes and goes – and also this element that can be both harmful to the youth and also obviously the broader community,” he said. “I think trying to figure out those challenges and how we best maintain that balance and how we respond to different youth is important. Certainly, my work has shown that you can kind of tip the scales one way or another depending on how you respond.”
Sullivan originally pursued a master’s degree in criminal justice with the intention of one day enrolling in law school, but during his time in graduate school, he was encouraged to continue focusing on research and pursue a PhD. He went on to do so at Rutgers University, writing his dissertation on early emotion and behavioral problems and whether they’re risk factors for delinquent behavior.
He landed his first faculty position as an assistant professor at the University of South Florida, then moved to the University of Cincinnati for 12 years, earning tenure in 2012 and serving as the director of graduate studies from 2013-2020.
Sullivan came to UMSL as a Des Lee professor in 2022, attracted by the strong national reputation of the department and its many community collaborations.
“That’s been probably the part of the job that I had done least coming in here,” Sullivan said, “so having the opportunity at this stage of my career where I’m a little bit more experienced and know a little bit better how to navigate different spaces has been very enjoyable. We’ve been able to partner with local organizations and local government to make some impact.”
Sullivan and Curators’ Distinguished Professor Lee Slocum have been lending their expertise in research and data collection to the Save Lives Now! initiative, which aims to reduce violent street crime by 20% across the St. Louis region.
They are also co-principal investigators on a National Institute of Justice grant supporting research on violence in St. Louis. They’ve been meeting with representatives from different community organizations to better understand opportunities and challenges for violence prevention as part of that work.
His community-engaged research contributed to his selection as an ASC Fellow.
“It’s validating,” Sullivan said, “but then it’s also an important inflection point to realize that it is important to continue to do those things for the rest of my career, especially the service and mentoring aspects of the award.”
