She earned her BA in criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (1991), her MA from the University of Louisiana at Monroe (1992) and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati (1999). Amy has twenty-two years of teaching experience. Teaching and research interests include criminal justice systems, criminological theory, sentencing, and corrections. Her published research has appeared in such journals as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Crime and Delinquency and Public Health Reports. She co-authored a book titled "Forty Studies that Changed Criminal Justice: Explorations into the History of Criminal Justice Research" which just came out in a second edition in 2013.