Francesca Spina
Chair and Professor

Biography

Dr. Francesca Spina is Chair and Professor of Criminal Justice at Westfield State University. She brings over a decade of leadership experience to the department, with a focus on fostering inclusive, applied, and interdisciplinary learning environments. Her areas of expertise include environmental justice, gender and incarceration, race and ethnicity in crime data, and criminal justice policy.

Dr. Spina is the author and editor of several books and has published widely in academic journals. She is passionate about bridging scholarship and practice, and her work often examines how systems of power and inequality shape criminal justice outcomes. In addition to her academic contributions, she has served on statewide policy commissions and continues to advise organizations on topics related to corrections, equity, and public safety. At Westfield State, she is committed to supporting students' academic growth and professional success in the field of criminal justice.

Education

  • Ph.D., Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Massachusetts Lowell

  • M.A., Criminal Justice, University of Massachusetts Lowell

  • B.A., Economics, Trinity College, CT

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Criminal Justice

  • Theories of Crime

  • Introduction to Corrections

  • Research Methods in Criminal Justice

  • Women in the Criminal Justice System

  • Race and Ethnicity in the Criminal Justice System

Publications

Spina, F. (Under contract). LGBTQ+ People and the Criminal Justice System. Bloomsbury Academic.

Spina, F. (Under contract). Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Contemporary Approach to Gender and Justice. Cognella.

Siegel, L., & Spina, F. (2026). Advanced Criminological Theory. Cognella.

Spina, F. (2026). Women and Incarceration: Global Lives in Focus. Bloomsbury.

Spina, F. (Ed.). (2025). The Routledge Companion to Gender and Crime. Routledge.

Accordino, M., & Spina, F. (2025). A program evaluation of a residential treatment facility for adolescent boys. In F. Spina (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Gender and Crime. Routledge.

Spina, F. (2025). Legal challenges to using criminal justice technology: Protecting civil rights as technology advances. In Criminal Justice Technology in the 21st Century (4th ed.). Charles C. Thomas Publishing.

Sturgeon, W. P., & Spina, F. (2023). Think Like a Terrorist to Combat Terrorism and Radicalization in Prison. CRC Press.

McCormack, P., Clarke, K., Walfield, S., & Spina, F. (2023). The (mis)measure of race and ethnicity in crime data. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 21(3).

Spina, F. (2023). The importance of mindfulness meditation in correctional settings. Journal of Correctional Education, 74(2).

Accordino, M., Spina, F., & Clark, D. (2023). Improving residential treatment programs for adjudicated males with disabilities. In Corrections and Disability. Aspen Publishing.

Spina, F. (2020). Gender and crime. Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. Oxford University Press.

Boyd, L. M., & Spina, F. (2019). Massachusetts’s Criminal Justice System. Carolina Academic Press.

Spina, F., McCormack, P., Clarke, K., & Walfield, S. (2019). Exploring how Latino political representation influences environmental enforcement. Sociological Perspectives, 62(3).

Spina, F. (2015). Environmental justice and patterns of state inspections. Social Science Quarterly, 96(2).

Professional Service

  • Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
  • American Society of Criminology

 

Headshot of Francesca Spina.