Thomas Mowen
Associate Professor
Areas of Expertise
- CJ 123: Introduction to Criminal Justice
Highlighted Publications
- Mowen, T. J., & Liu, L. (2026). Disability status, victimization, and substance use among justice-involved youth. Journal of Criminal Justice, 105, 102696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2026.102696
- Mowen, T. J., & Fisher, B. W. (2021). Youth reentry from prison and family violence perpetration: The salience of family dynamics. Journal of Family Violence, 36, 51-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00098-4
- Mowen, T. J., Brent, J. J., & Boman, J. H., IV. (2020). The effect of school discipline on offending across time. Justice Quarterly, 37, 739–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2019.1625428
Alma Mater
University of Louisville (BS and MA); University of Delaware (PhD)
Get to Know Thomas
Dr. Thomas (“Tom”) J. Mowen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice in the College of Social Work. Tom earned his B.S. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Louisville and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Delaware, with concentrations in criminology and quantitative and qualitative methods.
Dr. Mowen is a criminologist whose research examines how institutions, punishment, and social relationships shape crime, deviance, victimization, and well-being across the life course. His scholarship focuses on prisoner reentry, juvenile justice, school discipline and safety, the collateral consequences of criminal justice contact, and victimization among people with disabilities. Across these areas, his work examines how formal systems of control can create or intensify inequality and harm, and how families and other social relationships can help or hurt desistance and successful life transitions. His research draws extensively on longitudinal data and advanced quantitative methods to address questions with implications for criminological theory, policy, and practice.
Dr. Mowen has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles. His research has appeared in leading criminology and interdisciplinary outlets including Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, Crime & Delinquency, and Nature Human Behaviour. His work has also appeared in prominent youth- and family-focused journals, including Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Youth & Society, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, and Journal of Family Violence among many others.
Tom’s professional service includes editorial-board appointments at Criminology & Public Policy, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and Deviant Behavior, as well as prior service on the editorial board of Justice Quarterly. He served as Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at a prior institution and was subsequently named its inaugural Chair Emeritus in recognition of his institutional service. Dr. Mowen has chaired numerous doctoral dissertations and master’s theses and has taught courses spanning criminology, deviance and social control, social inequality, graduate statistics, and structural equation and dynamic modeling.