Department of
Criminology and Criminal Justice

Professor Luskin is a political scientist whose research and teaching interests focus on trial courts as institutions affecting the distribution of value in society and on discretionary decision-making in court-related settings. In her research, she has been interested in how community context affects the work of limited jurisdiction courts and the potential of such courts as accessible, economic, and responsive local institutions of justice. Her recent research focuses on the responses of courts and criminal justice agencies to mentally ill defendants and offenders and mentally ill defendants responses to their experience in the criminal justice system, including participation in a multi-site outcome study of mental health courts. Professor Luskin teaches a variety of courses relating to these interests, including courses on the courts, plea bargaining and trials, discretionary decisions in criminal justice contexts, and the mentally ill in the criminal justice system.