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Tina Freiburger, Dean of School of Education.

Tina Freiburger, PhD

  • Dean, Office of the Dean

Dr. Tina Freiburger is dean of the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, dean of the School of Education, and interim dean of the School of Information Studies 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 associate 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

  • PhD, Criminology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2007
  • MA, Criminal Justice/Criminology, Sam Houston State University, 2004
  • BA, 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