Gordon A. Crews

Gordon A. Crews, Ph.D., is Chair and Keith A. Ferguson Endowed Professor in Criminal Justice at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (TX). He is also the President of the Veritas Consulting Group (TX). Prior to this position, he was Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology and Founder of the Center for Justice and Social Research at Tiffin University (OH).

Dr. Crews began his teaching career in 1990 as Department Head of the Criminal Justice & Paralegal program at Sumter Area Technical College (SC) at twenty-five years old while still in graduate school working towards his Master of Criminal Justice Degree. He would complete his first seven years of teaching at the community college level by then moving to Midlands Technical College (SC). Since 1997, Dr. Crews has served as a faculty member and/or academic administrator at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (SC), Valdosta State University (GA), Jacksonville State University (AL), Roger Williams University (RI), Cameron University (OK), Washburn University (KS), Marshall University (WV), and Tiffin University (OH).

In addition to over 33 years of post-secondary education experience, Dr. Crews has conducted POST certified law enforcement and correctional training in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, in the areas of proper policy and practice. He has also worked with the Turkish National Police and Ghana National Police on community policing initiatives.

He earned a Ph.D. in Education/Criminal Justice, a Graduate Certificate in Alcohol & Drug Studies, a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, and Master of Criminal Justice, from the University of South Carolina (SC). He served as Executive Counselor for the Juvenile Justice Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and as former President and member of the Board of Directors for the Southern Criminal Justice Association. In 2008 he was appointed for a three-year term as the Executive Director of the Secretariat for this same organization. In 2010 he had the honor of being appointed the first President of the charter Phi Kappa Phi (ΦКΦ) National Honor Society Chapter, and in 2013 becoming the faculty advisor to his fraternity, Delta Chi (ΔΧ) at Marshall University (WV). Most recently, in 2022, he was elected as First Vice President for the Southwestern Criminal Justice Association.

Prior to teaching, Dr. Crews worked in law enforcement at the Richland Country Sheriff’s Department (SC), University of South Carolina Police Department (SC), Floyd Country Sheriff’s Department (GA), and Mount Berry College Police Department (GA). In these departments he worked as a bloodhound/narcotics k-9 officer & trainer, field-training officer, and criminal investigator (crimes against persons/sexual assault). He also worked in corrections as a training and accreditation manager; and in insurance fraud as a private licensed investigator.

His publications include refereed journal articles and book chapters dealing with juvenile violence & delinquency, Occult/Satanic involvement by youth, and various law enforcement and correctional issues. His primary publications focus on K-12 school violence (history of perpetrators, causes, impact, internal & external threats).

His books include Faces of violence in America (1996), The evolution of school disturbance in America: Colonial times to present day (1997), A history of correctional violence: An examination of reported causes of riots & disturbances (1998), Chasing shadows: Confronting juvenile violence in America (2001), Living in prison: A history of the correctional system with an insider’s view (2004), and, School Killers Speak: A Comprehensive Examination of Traditional School Violence Perpetrators in K-12 American Schools (2017).

His edited books include In the margins: Special populations and American justice (2008), Critical examinations of school violence and disturbance in K-12 education (2016), Handbook of Research on School Violence in American K-12 Education (2019), Handbook of Research on Mass Shooting and Multiple Victim Violence (2020), Mitigating Mass Violence and Managing Threats in Contemporary Society (2021), and, most recently, Impact of School Shootings on Classroom Culture, Curriculum, and Learning Society (2022).

His current writing projects include the life story of a convicted elementary school shooter Brendan Liam O'Rourke (Satellite Sensory Mind Control Technology: The Kelly Elementary School Shooting, Carlsbad, California, October 8, 2010). He is also serving as guest editor for two special editions dealing with K-12 School Violence. His current field research is revamping an Incarcerated K-12 School Violence Perpetrators Survey and Interviews project which has been ongoing in various forms since Fall 2012.

Perhaps his most relevant experience which speaks to his ability as an effective expert witness in policing and correctional matters is his role as a lead police/correctional expert in a grant-funded review of police and correctional training curricula (state, county, and municipal) from more than 60 academies across the United States. Dr. Crews also served on a panel of experts to redevelop the framework for how new police related mental health federal grants would function to be offered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and a revamping of the Police-Mental Health Collaboration Toolkit used by many law enforcement agencies in the United States.

He is and has been a consultant on police related wrongful death suits, police pursuit policy and practice. Dr. Crews has also served as consultant with law enforcement agencies to identify, evaluate, and analyze potential evidence in Occult based crime scenes in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and West Virginia.

He has and is serving as a Technical Consultant and Associate Producer on various documentaries dealing with school violence perpetrators and historical school shooting events (Final Cut for Real Production Company (Denmark) and Dry Creek Pictures, LLC (California). He also served as advisor for documentaries dealing with convicted South Carolina murder Steven Stanko (Make Believe Media, Inc., Global TV, and Investigation Discovery).

Since 2000, Dr. Crews has conducted extensive field research in his areas of interest across the United States, United Kingdom, Egypt, Netherlands, Central Europe, Scandinavia, Turkey, Ghana, Central and Eastern Europe (i.e., Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungry, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia). His most recent research was conducted in Brazil, Japan, the Republic of Ireland, and in Sweden.

Dr. Crews has also appeared as an expert on national and international programming such as CNN, MSNBC, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360◦, The Abrams Report, Nancy Grace, Gloria Van Susteren, African National Television, and Due Diligence on Voice of Russia Radio Network.