She received her doctorate from Washington State University in 2008. Her primary areas of research are policing and criminal justice policy, and she has a strong quantitative background. Dr. Gau’s work has appeared in journals such as Justice Quarterly, British Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Crime & Delinquency, Criminology & Public Policy, Police Quarterly, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, and the Journal of Criminal Justice Education. In addition to Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice, she is author of Criminal Justice Policy: Origins and Effectiveness (Oxford University Press) and co-author of Key Ideas in Criminology and Criminal Justice (SAGE Publications). Additionally, she co-edits Race and Justice: An International Journal, published by SAGE.