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Portrait of Tina Freiburger (white woman)

Tina Freiburger, PhD

  • Dean, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare
  • Professor, Criminal Justice & Criminology

Dr. Tina Freiburger is dean of the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Freiburger's primary research areas are courts and sentencing, program evaluation, juvenile justice, and racial/ethnic issues in the criminal justice system. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses, including Methods in Social Welfare Research; Analysis of Criminal Justice Research; Juvenile Justice; Perspectives of Crime and the Criminal Justice System; and Crime and Criminal Justice Policy.

Dr. Freiburger has partnered with several local criminal justice agencies for studies and program evaluations on topics including: juvenile offending; improving the identification of the mental health needs of youth in our community; police and juvenile relations; the effectiveness of work programs for probationers and parolees; the effectiveness of hotspot policing; and racial and gender disparities in prosecutorial and judicial decision making.

Dr. Freiburger has published numerous articles in criminal justice journals and is the editor of Corrections: Policy, Practice, and Research. She is also a member of the editorial board of Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice; Race and Justice: An International Journal; and Journal of Crime and Justice.

Education:

  • Ph.D., Criminology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2007
  • M.A., Criminal Justice/Criminology, Sam Houston State University, 2004
  • B.A., Criminal Justice/Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, 2001 

Professional Interests:

  • Program evaluation
  • Criminal sentencing
  • Gender and racial disparities in the criminal justice system
  • Juvenile justice and decision making in the juvenile court

Recent Grants:

  • 10/2019-9/2022: Principal Investigator, Process and Outcome Evaluation of Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) at the House of Correction. Funding: Bureau of Justice Assistance, $121.497.
  • 9/2019-9/2023: Co-Principal Investigator (with Co-Principal Investigator, Melinda Kavanaugh), System of Care (SOC) Expansion & Sustainability Evaluation and Infrastructure Development. Funding: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), $1,272,999.
  • 7/2019-12/2019: Principal Investigator, Infrastructure Development Research for Milwaukee Wraparound. Funding: Milwaukee County, $29,500.
  • 5/2019-5/2024: Principal Investigator, Assessment of Performance Measures for Milwaukee County Adult Drug Treatment Court, Funding: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), $350.000.
  • 5/2019-12/2019, Principal Investigator, Enhanced Milwaukee County Circuit Diversion and Deferral Program to Meet Participants' Mental Health Needs. Funding: Bureau of Justice Assistance, $30,300.
  • 10/2018-9/2021: Principal Investigator, System-level Diversion Project-Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program. Funding: Bureau of Justice Assistance, $56,448.
  • 10/2018-6/2019: Co-Principal Investigator, An Assessment of a Vocational Training Program to Prepare Wisconsin's Prison Population for Skilled Employment. Tommy Thompson Foundation, $56,448.
  • 10/2018-9/2020: Principal Investigator, Eviction Defense Project Evaluation: Years 3 and 4. Funding: Legal Services Corporation, $25,000.
  • 8/2017-9/2018: Co-Principal Investigator, (with Co-Principal Investigator, Melinda Kavanaugh) In-depth Examination of Opioid Deaths in Milwaukee County. Funding: Department of Justice, $75,000.
  • 1/2017-8/2018: Principal Investigator, An Investigation of the Vistelar Training Initiative at Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division. Funding, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division, $79,999.
  • 2/2017-10/2018: Principal Investigator, Eviction Defense Project Evaluation. Funding: Legal Services Corporation, $25,000.
  • 9/2016-9/2019: Principal Investigator, Milwaukee County Adult Treatment Court: Service Enhancement Project. Funding: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), $194,997.
  • 9/2015-9/2018: Principal Investigator, Mental Health First Aider Training for Transitional-Aged Youth. Funding: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), $31,500.
  • 2015-2016: Principal Investigator, An Evaluation of S.T.O.P. in St. Louis, MO. Funding: St. Louis Police Foundation, $19,904.
  • 10/2015-9/2016: Principal Investigator, Evaluation of Students Talking it Over with Police (S.T.O.P.) in Racine, WI. Funding: Private Foundation Donor, $39,500.
  • 1/2014-12/2014: Principal Investigator, An Evaluation of S.T.O.P. in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Funding: U.S. Department of Justice, $10,903.36.
  • 5/2011-8/2012: Co-Principal Investigator (with Co-Principal Investigator, William Pelfrey), MillerCoors Alcohol Retail Partnership Project. Funding: MillerCoors, $70,000.

Professional Affiliations:

  • Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
  • American Society of Criminology
  • Midwest Criminal Justice Association

Media Coverage:

Books:

  • Freiburger, T.L. & Sheeran, A.M. (in press). Teaching Research Methods. Cognella: Academic Publishing.
  • Freiburger, T.L. & Jordan, K.L. (2016). Race and Ethnicity in the Juvenile Justice System. Carolina Academic Press.
  • Freiburger, T.L. & Marcum, C.D. (2015). Women in the criminal justice system: Tracking the journey of females and crime. Taylor and Francis Group.

Select Publications:

  • Freiburger, T. L. & Sheeran, A.M.** (forthcoming). Evaluation of Safe Streets Treatment Option to reduce recidivism among repeat drunk driving offenders. Criminal Justice Policy Review
  • Freiburger, T. L. & Romain, D.M. (forthcoming). An Examination of the impacts of gender, race, and ethnicity on the judicial processing of offenders in domestic violence cases, Crime and Delinquency
  • Romain, D. M. & Freiburger, T.L. (2016). Chivalry revisited: Gender, race/ethnicity, and offense type on domestic violence charge reduction. Feminist Criminology, 11(2), 191-222.
  • Jordan, K.L. & Freiburger, T.L. (2015). The effect of race-ethnicity on sentencing: Examining sentence type, jail length, and prison length. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 13(3), 179-196.
  • Snowden, A.J. & Freiburger, T.L. (2015). Alcohol outlets, social disorganization, and robberies: Accounting for neighborhood characteristics and alcohol outlet types. Social Science Research, 51, 145-162.
  • Hilinski-Rosick, C.M., Freiburger, T.L. & Verheek, A.* (2014). The effects of legal and extra-legal variables on the sentences of sex offenders. Victims and Offenders, 9(3), 334-351.
  • Freiburger, T.L. & Hilinski, C. (2013). The effects of race, gender and age on sentencing using a trichotomous dependent variable. Crime & Delinquency, 59(1), 69-86.
  • Freiburger, T.L., Marcum, C.D., Iannacchione, B.M.*, & Higgins, G.E. (2012). Sex offenders and criminal recidivism: An exploratory trajectory analysis using a Virginia sample. Journal of Crime and Justice, 35(3), 365-375.
  • Freiburger, T.L. & Burke, A.S. (2011). Status offenders in the juvenile court: The effects of gender, race, and ethnicity on the adjudication decision. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 9(4), 352-365.
  • Freiburger, T.L. & Jordan, K.L. (2011). A multilevel analysis of race on the decision to prosecute in the juvenile court. Race and Justice: An International Journal, 1(2), 185-201.
  • Freiburger, T.L. & Hilinski, C. (2010). The impact of race, gender, and age on the pretrial decision. Criminal Justice Review, 35(3), 318-334.
  • Jordan, K. & Freiburger, T.L. (2010). Examining the impact of race and ethnicity on the sentencing of juveniles in the adult court. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 20(2), 185-201.
  • Freiburger, T.L. (2010). The effects of gender, family status, and race on sentencing decisions. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 28(3), 378-395.

Curriculum Vitae