~ RGVRC Affiliate Scholar ~

Brent R. Klein, PhD, is an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina. He specializes in generating refined explanations of violence and producing empirical evidence to guide public policy. His interdisciplinary approach combines elements from sociology, developmental and life-course criminology, situational theories, and decision-making processes to foster comprehensive insights into the emergence, causes, and prevention of various violent actions.

Klein’s primary areas of study extend to a range of urgent societal issues. This work has focused on school and firearms-related violence, mass shootings, homicide, terrorism, and bias-motivated crimes. His research findings have been featured in reputable, peer-reviewed publications such as Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, Crime & Delinquency, Homicide Studies, Journal of School Violence, and Journal of Interpersonal Violence, among others.

Klein remains the principal investigator for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded longitudinal study on the pathways to school shootings. Moreover, he has co-developed two additional NIJ-funded projects: The American School Shooting Study (TASSS) and the Comparative Gun Violence Project (CGVP). Klein’s affiliations extend to the US Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and the American Terrorism Study (ATS), where he serves as an affiliate scholar. In the past, Klein has provided his expertise as a research consultant to the Michigan State Police’s (MSP) task force on school safety. In addition, he was the inaugural student board member for the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Terrorism & Bias Crimes (DTBC). Klein is a fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Doctoral Summit and the NIJ’s Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF).