Dr. Stephen F. Pires earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. He is an expert on the illegal wildlife trade with a particular focus on commonly-poached species (i.e. hot products), illicit markets, & the organization of the illegal trade. In addition to his work on wildlife crime, Dr. Pires has published several articles on how other deviant behavior, such as kidnappings for ransom and illicit smoking, is clustered in space and time while illustrating the benefits of using GIS to inform prevention policy. Dr. Pires has presented his research at numerous conferences and symposia on a national and international scale and has published in a variety of scholarly journals including the Biological Conservation, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, British Journal of Criminology, Forest Policy & Economics, Bird Conservation International, Ocean and Coastal Management, Journal of American College Health, Homicide Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and Crime Science. Recently, he co-authored the books, “Wildlife Crime: An Environmental Criminology and Crime Science Perspective” (2018) and “Quantitative Studies in Green and Conservation Criminology” (2019).
Dr. Pires is a member of the American Society of Criminology, Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, the Center for Conservation Criminology at Rutgers University, and the Problem-Oriented Policing Center - Wilderness Problems. He is an editorial board member for the journal Global Crime and has served as Guest Editor for the Special Issue on ‘Wildlife Crime’ at the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research in 2015 and in Animals in 2022.
research interests
Situational Crime Prevention | Crime Mapping | Conservation Criminology | Wildlife Crime | Kidnapping for Ransom | International Crime