Biography

Chris Melde is an associate professor and coordinator of undergraduate studies in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. His primary research interests include program evaluation, the impact of violent offending and victimization on adolescent development, street gangs, reactions to victimization risk, and criminological theory. He is currently working on an NIJ funded multi-method multi-site study of the impact of gang desistance on adolescent development, especially as it relates to violent offending and victimization. He has also recently worked on the evaluation of Lansing, Michigan’s Neighborhood Stabilization and Youth Violence Initiative; the evaluation of the Project Safe Neighborhoods Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative; the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training Program (G.R.E.A.T.); and the National Evaluation of the Teens, Crime, and the Community: Community Works Program.  His recent work has appeared in such outlets as Criminology, Criminology and Public Policy, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology.