Costa Featured in Emerging Group of Researchers Changing Understanding of Gun Violence
School of Criminal Justice Doctoral Candidate Jordan Costa featured in ‘The Trace’
Jordan Costa began her PhD at Rutgers – Newark in 2018. Her primary research interests include structural violence and violence prevention. Jordan specifically investigates how systems engage in the perpetuation of preventable harm and avertable death, in addition to community-based interventions for violence reduction. She has worked extensively in service provision connecting young men who have been violently injured to the appropriate social services through hospital-based violence intervention programs and has also tutored in jails and prisons. Additionally, she has experience in philanthropy and the non-profit sector conducting research and supporting strategies for projects on violence reduction and reentry readiness. Jordan holds a Bachelors in Psychology and Criminology/Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland, College Park and a Masters from Rutgers – Newark.
An Emerging Group of Researchers Is Changing Our Understanding of Gun Violence
The Black and Brown Collective was formed to address inequities in the gun violence research community. Its diversity is reflected in its work — and is strengthening the field itself.
“Researchers of color depend on mentors of color to support us, which is beautiful but also fundamentally inequitable because it puts a huge burden on faculty of color to mitigate the structural challenges,” said Jordan Costa, who lost her father in a shooting when she was 8 and now leverages her lived experience in her role as the senior project manager for Giffords Center for Violence Intervention. “Support for first-generation doctoral students with lived experience is a huge issue, and programs are often designed for people who have the liberty to solely focus on school and have had generations of access to education.”