Bio

Dr. Alejandro Giménez-Santana is Deputy Director of the Rutgers Center on Public Security (RCPS) and Director of the Newark Public Safety Collaborative (NPSC). He has worked extensively in researching the association between unique contexts of social disorganization and crime risk on the spatial distribution of violence across various urban settings. Dr. Santana has served as a consultant for the World Bank regional office in Bogotá, Colombia, and for the Inter-American Development Bank in Montevideo, Uruguay. Currently, he is directing a multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve public safety in the city of Newark through the application of an evidence-based, data-informed community engagement effort.

Website

www.agimenezsantana.com

Recent Grants

Gimenez-Santana, A. (PI), Caplan, J. (Co-PI) & Kennedy, L. (Co-PI). From the Prudential and Victoria Foundations, for four years of support of the Newark Public Safety Collaborative (2018-2021). $735,000

In 2018, the Newark Public Safety Collaborative (NPSC) was formed as part of the Rutgers-Newark School of Criminal Justice Anchor program to foster community participation in creating safe neighborhoods across the city of Newark. Today, NPSC is a well-established public safety initiative with a diverse pool of community partners ranging from grassroots movements to well-organized community development groups. Other community partners affiliated with the NPSC include community-based organizations (CBOs), real estate developers, law enforcement, local government officials, Newark-based corporations, as well as other key stakeholders. The NPSC initiative focuses on the use of data analytics under the Data-Informed Community Engagement (DICE) framework to assist community groups in their efforts to problem-solve and proactively address the environmental conditions that give rise to expressions of criminal behavior across the city of Newark.

Recent & Key Publications

Chichester, K., Drawve, G., Giménez-Santana, A., Sisson, M., McCleskey, B., Dye, D.W., Walker, J. T., Mrug, S., & Cropsey, K. L. (2020). Pharmacies and features of the built environment associated with opioid overdose: A geospatial comparison of rural and urban regions in Alabama, USA. International Journal of Drug Policy.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395920300773

Giménez-Santana, A., Medina, J. E., & Miró, F. (2018). Risk terrain Modeling for road safety: Identifying accident-related environmental factors in the province of Cádiz, Spain. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10610-018-9398-x

Giménez-Santana, A., Caplan, J. M., & Drawve, G. (2018). Risk terrain modeling and socio-economic stratification: Identifying risky places for violent crime victimization in Bogotá, Colombia. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10610-018-9374-5