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Candence Wills

Criminology and Justice Policy, PhD

Candi Wills (she/her) is in her 4th year of the doctoral program and focuses her research primarily on institutional responses to human trafficking and marginalized populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, gender, and sexual minorities. While at Northeastern SCCJ, Candi has worked on several research projects with Dr. Farrell including NIJ-funded “US Citizen Labor Trafficking,” the “Office of Victims of Crime Grant: Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking” project, and the NIJ-funded project “Understanding the Trafficking of Children for the Purposes of Labor in the United States” in collaboration with Dr. Meredith Dank at John Jay. As a member of the Institute on Race and Justice, Candi has also worked with Dr. Jack McDevitt on the MA EOPSS funded project to create a “Hate Crimes Resource Guide” for MA public schools and the Douglas County Police along with Dr. Janice Iwama at American University. Recently, Candi worked with Dr. Natasha Frost and Dr. Carlos Montiero (Suffolk University) on the NIJ-funded “Correctional Officer Well-being” project. In the Fall 2019 semester, Candi was awarded the Experiential Learning Fellowship and had the extraordinary opportunity to conduct research at the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime in Vienna, Austria. While at the UNODC, she contributed to the 2020 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (GLOTIP) and attended expert group meetings on the use of technology in cases of trafficking in persons. This experience further shaped her dissertation on the “Relationship between Sex Work Policies and Responses to Human Trafficking.” Candi also has experience teaching undergraduates as the instructor of “Introduction to Criminal Justice.” Aside from research and teaching, she spends most of her time with her Puggle, Leanne, and playing in Boston LGBTQ+ recreational sports leagues.

Related Schools & Departments

Book Chapters

Marshall, I.M., Wills, C., & Marshall, C.E. (2020). Parents who hit, Troubled Families and Children’s Happiness: Do Gender and National Context make a Difference? In H. Kury & S. Redo. Crime Prevention and Justice in 2030: UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Springer International Publishing. 

Farrell, A., Wills, C., & Nicolas, C. (2020). Police Engagement in Multidisciplinary Team Approaches to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. In Science Informed Policing (pp. 195-214). Springer, Cham.


Reports

UNODC (Core Team: Kangaspunta, K., Sarrica, F., Serio, S., Whelan, K., Samson, J., & Wills, C.). 2021. Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020. (Sales No. E.20.IV.3). Vienna, Austria: United Nations publication.

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