Bio

Dr. Colleen M. Berryessa joined the faculty at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice in 2018. Her research, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods, considers how psychological processes, perceptions, attitudes, and social contexts affect the criminal justice system, particularly related to courts, sentencing, and forms of punishment broadly defined.

She primarily examines these issues, using interdisciplinary methodologies, in relation to three areas: 1) how psychological and social phenomena influence public perceptions, support, and subsequent consideration of practices, policies, and the philosophical foundations surrounding sentencing; 2) how psychological and social phenomena influence the discretion and decision-making of criminal justice actors during the sentencing process; and 3) how psychological and social phenomena bear on motivations for and effects of expanded forms of legal and social punitiveness beyond the formal punishment stages of the criminal justice system.

Dr. Berryessa received her Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. Before Penn, she graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Government and Mind, Brain, and Behavior, and she served as a CIRGE research fellow at Stanford University.

Her personal website is colleenberryessa.com and information on her lab/trainees can be found here.

Selected Recent Publications

I. Polito+ and C.M. Berryessa. (2025). Politics in Policy: An Experimental Examination of Public Views Regarding Sentence Reductions via Second Chance Mechanisms. Law and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000605

C.M. Berryessa. (2025). The Role of Moral Panic in Motivating Public Support for Punitive Drug Sentencing. Contemporary Drug Problems. https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509251326114

C.R. Caliman+ and C.M. Berryessa. (2025). Analyzing the Impacts of Race, Addiction, Drug Type, and Criminal Record on Public Support for Criminalized and Medicalized Sentencing Approaches toward Illegal Drug Use. Journal of Experimental Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-024-09657-2

M. Millar+, C.M. Berryessa, C. Willis-Esqueda, J.A. Cantone, D. Goldfarb, M. de Vel-Palumbo, A.D. Perillo, T.O. Taylor, and L.T. Becker+. (2024). Essentialism and the Criminal Legal System. Law and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000576

M.A. Thomaidou+, A. Patel+, S. Xie+, and C.M. Berryessa. (2024). Machine Learning Analysis of a National Sample of U.S. Case Law Involving Mental Health Evidence. Journal of Criminal Justice, 94, 102266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102266

S.S. Xie+ and C.M. Berryessa. (2024). The Effects of a Defendant’s Childhood Physical Abuse on Lay Support for Sentencing: The Moderating Role of Essentialism. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 42(6), 662-683. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2686

M.A. Thomaidou+ and C.M. Berryessa. (2023). Mental Illness as a Sentencing Determinant: A Comparative Case Law Analysis Based on a Machine Learning Approach. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 50(7), 976-995. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548231170801

C.M. Berryessa. (2023). Therapeutic Approaches to Remorse in Sentencing Recommendations: A Qualitative Study of Probation Officers. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 50(4), 497-520. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221139846

C.M. Berryessa, I.E. Dror, and B. McCormack. (2022). Prosecuting from the Bench? Examining Potential Sources of Pro-Prosecution Bias in Judges. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 28(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/lcrp.12226

M.A. Thomaidou+ and C.M. Berryessa. (2022). A Jury of Scientists: Formal Education in Biobehavioral Sciences Reduces the Odds of Punitive Criminal Sentencing. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 40(6), 787-817. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2588

C.M. Berryessa. (2022). Modeling “Remorse Bias” in Probation Narratives: Examining Social Cognition and Judgments of Implicit Violence During Sentencing. Journal of Social Issues, 78(2), 452-482. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12508

C.M. Berryessa. (2022). Losing the Lottery of Life: Examining Intuitions of Desert Toward the Socially and Genetically “Unlucky” in Criminal Punishment Contexts. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 40(3), 403-432. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2563

C.M. Berryessa. (2021). Defendants with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Criminal Court: A Judges’ Toolkit. Drexel Law Review, 13(4), 841-868. https://drexel.edu/law/lawreview/issues/Archives/v13-4/berryessa/

C.M. Berryessa. (2021). A Tale of “Second Chances:” An Experimental Examination of Popular Support for Early Release Mechanisms that Reconsider Long-term Prison Sentences. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 18, 783-824. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-021-09466-x

+ indicates student/trainee