His research focuses on the causes and prevention of school violence, hate crime, and mass murder. As a nationally-recognized expert on school violence, he has spoken to audiences across the country and around the world about his research, including at the 2015 United States Congressional Briefing on School Safety and Violence Prevention in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Northeastern University in Boston, where he was a Research Associate at the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict. He often teaches courses on criminological theory, sociology of deviance and social control, criminal homicide, juvenile justice, and diversity and social justice in criminology.