Kevin Michael Beaver (born September 17, 1977) is an American criminologist and the

Judith Rich Harris Judith Rich Harris (February 10, 1938 – December 29, 2018) was an American psychology researcher and the author of ''The Nurture Assumption'', a book criticizing the belief that parents are the most important factor in child development, and pre ...

Professor of Criminology at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, where he is also the director of the Distance Learning Program.

Education

Beaver graduated from

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

in 2000 with a B.A. in sociology, and received his M.S. in criminal justice in 2001 from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

. He went on to receive his Ph.D. in criminal justice, also from the University of Cincinnati, in 2006.

Career

Beaver joined the faculty of

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution with over 14,000 students; over 12,000 are undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 are graduate students. Northern K ...

in 2006 as an instructor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice. That same year, he joined Florida State as an assistant professor, and became an associate professor in 2010.

Research

Beaver's research focuses on the field of

biosocial criminology Biosocial criminology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to explain crime and antisocial behavior by exploring biocultural factors. While contemporary criminology has been dominated by sociological theories, biosocial criminology also re ...

, including studies on the causes of

antisocial behavior Antisocial may refer to: Sociology, psychiatry and psychology *Anti-social behaviour * Antisocial personality disorder *Psychopathy *Conduct disorder Law *Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 *Anti-Social Behaviour Order *Crime and Disorder Act 1998 * ...

s, such as delinquency, which he has said has both genetic and environmental causes. He has also researched the link between parenting behavior and child intelligence, as well as the potential for genetic factors to contribute to academic achievement in children. His research has also found a link between a rare form of the

MAOA Monoamine oxidase A, also known as MAO-A, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''MAOA'' gene. This gene is one of two neighboring gene family members that encode mitochondrial enzymes which catalyze the oxidative deamination of amines, ...

gene (known as the "warrior gene") and violent behavior and weapon use among boys.

Editorial activities

Beaver is the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the ''

Journal of Drug Issues The ''Journal of Drug Issues'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed medical journal covering the adverse effects of drugs, especially illicit drugs. It was established in 1971 and is published by SAGE Publications in association with the Florida State Univ ...

''.

References

External links

Faculty pageProfile
at

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaver, Kevin M. American criminologists 1977 births Living people Florida State University faculty Ohio University alumni University of Cincinnati alumni