Megan Denver

Director of the Corrections and Reentry Lab; Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Megan Denver’s research interests include criminal record stigma, employment and recidivism, credentialing decisions for people with criminal records, and desistance. She uses a variety of methods to address her research questions and integrates criminological theory with policy. Denver was a 2016 National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellow and previously worked as a research associate at the Urban Institute.

Read Denver’s faculty spotlight.

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Awards & Honors

Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award, 2021, American Society of Criminology.
Outstanding Young Experimental Criminologist Award, 2019, American Society of Criminology, Division of Experimental Criminology.
University Distinguished Dissertation Award, 2018, University at Albany.

Selected Publications

Denver, Megan Abby Ballou and Samuel E. DeWitt. 2024. What’s in a Label? Public Use and Perceptions of Labeling Alternatives in Criminology Justice Quarterly (OnlineFirst)
Denver, Megan, and Samuel E. DeWitt. 2023. “[It’s] what you do after the mistake that counts”: Positive employment credentials, criminal record stigma, and potential pathways of mediation. Criminology.
Denver, Megan, and Abigail Ballou. 2022. Collateral Consequences & Public Safety. Arnold Ventures Discussion Paper.
DeWitt, Samuel E., and Megan Denver. 2020. Criminal Records, Positive Employment Credentials and Race. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 57(3): 333-368.
Denver, Megan, and Alec Ewald. 2018. Credentialing Decisions and Criminal Records: A Narrative Approach. Criminology 56(4): 715-749.
Denver, Megan, Justin T. Pickett, and Shawn D. Bushway. 2017. The Language of Stigmatization and the Mark of Violence: Experimental Evidence on the Social Construction and Use of Criminal Record Stigma. Criminology 55(3): 664-90.
Denver, Megan, Garima Siwach, and Shawn D. Bushway. 2017. A New Look at the Employment and Recidivism Relationship Through the Lens of a Criminal Background Check. Criminology 55 (1): 174-204.

Fellowships & Grants

“All Reentry is Local: Evaluating a Strategy to Reenter State Prisoners through Local Correctional Systems.” National Institute of Justice ($249,766). Principal Investigator. (Co-PI: Ben Struhl). 2022–2023.
“Navigating Mainstream Institutions and Non-Traditional Alternatives Post-Incarceration.” National Science Foundation ($297,178). Principal Investigator. (Co-PI: Rod Brunson). 2021–2023.
“Targeting the ‘absence’ in a desistance framework: Balancing risk and rehabilitation in mandated criminal background check employment decisions.” National Institute of Justice, Graduate Research Fellowship Program in the Social and Behavioral Sciences ($32,000). 2016–2017.