Stephen Pires

View Dr. Pires' full profile in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Dr. Stephen F. Pires earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. He is an expert on the illegal wildlife trade with a particular focus on commonly-poached species (i.e. hot products), illicit markets, & the organization of the illegal trade. In addition to his work on wildlife crime, Dr. Pires has published several articles on how other deviant behavior, such as kidnappings for ransom and illicit smoking, is clustered in space and time while illustrating the benefits of using GIS to inform prevention policy. Dr. Pires has presented his research at numerous conferences and symposia on a national and international scale and has published in a variety of scholarly journals including the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, British Journal of Criminology, Forest Policy & Economics, Bird Conservation International/, Ocean and Coastal Management, Journal of American College Health, Homicide Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Crime Science. Recently, he co-authored the books, “Wildlife Crime: An Environmental Criminology and Crime Science Perspective” (2018) and “Quantitative Studies in Green and Conservation Criminology” (2019).

Dr. Pires is a member of the American Society of Criminology, Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, Center for Conservation Criminology at Rutgers University, International Green Criminology Working Group, and the Working Group Psittaciformes of the International Ornithologists’ Union. He is an editorial board member for the journal Global Crime and has served as Guest Editor for the Special Issue on ‘Wildlife Crime’ at the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research in 2015.

Research Areas

• Situational Crime Prevention
• Crime Mapping
• Conservation Criminology
• Wildlife Crime
• Kidnapping for Ransom
• International Crime

Education

• PhD, Rutgers University-Newark, Criminal Justice, 2012
• MA, Rutgers University-Newark, Criminal Justice, 2008
• BA, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice, 2005