Patricia Becker

Patricia Becker, originally from the Philadelphia area, is focused on understanding the various dimensions of crime and victimization. Currently, Patricia is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware, expected to graduate in May 2020 with her Ph.D. in Criminology. She earned her M.A. (2017) in Criminology at the University of Delaware. Her research explores three areas: (i) the role—and importance—of families in the reentry process of justice-involved individuals, (ii) how parenting relates to recidivism and desistance, and (iii) how social and structural dynamics influence the relationship between family and crime. Drawing on these interests, her dissertation investigates how incarceration structures the relationships between fathers and their children, and in turn, how this relationship impacts the desistance process. Patricia’s dissertation examines life history narratives of men entrenched in the criminal justice system collected in the NIJ-funded Roads Diverge: Long-Term Patterns of Relapse, Recidivism and Desistance for a Re-Entry Cohort project. Instead of reinforcing the pathological question “what’s wrong with incarcerated fathers?”, her work will shed much needed light on the ways in which incarcerated fathers process and make meaning of parenting roles themselves. Patricia’s research has been presented to practitioners and academics at conferences such as the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the Sociologists for Women in Society.