Besiki Luka Kutateladze

Office: PCA-364A
Phone: 305.348.4892
Email: bkutatel@fiu.edu
Twitter: @BesikiLuka
CV: Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Dr. Besiki Luka Kutateladze is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is also a founder and co-manager of Prosecutorial Performance Indicators (PPIs), a national research and technical assistance project focusing on prosecutorial reform.

Prof. Kutateladze specializes in performance indicators, prosecutorial discretion, racial disparities, and hate crime reporting and prosecution. His scholarship has been featured in many top-tier publications, including solo- and first-author articles in each of the field’s three flagship journals: Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and Law & Human Behavior. His work has been referenced by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Tampa Bay Times, The Orlando Sentinel, The Huffington Post, and The Crime Report.

Prof. Kutateladze has raised over $21m in research funds. This includes $9m+ while at FIU, since 2016. He served as a principal investigator (PI) on multiple National Institute of Justice-funded projects.

In 2019, the FIU Provost named Prof. Kutateladze FIU’s Top Scholar for Research. In 2021, he received a prestigious FIU Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity.

Prior to his appointment at FIU, Prof. Kutateladze was the founding research director at the Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG) of the City University of New York. Before that, Prof. Kutateladze served as the research director for the Prosecution and Racial Justice Program of the Vera Institute of Justice. From 2008 to 2013, he played a crucial role in the development of the United Nations Rule of Law Indicators and their implementation in Haiti and Liberia. Prior to that, Prof. Kutateladze taught courses on comparative criminal justice and statistics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and lectured and conducted research on criminal procedure at Tbilisi State University.

In 2002, Prof. Kutateladze was the U.S. State Department fellow from the Republic of Georgia.

Featured Publications

Kutateladze, B. L., Dunlea, R. R., Liu, L., & Arndt, M. (2022). A test of the bifurcation hypothesis in prosecutorial diversion. Criminology & Public Policy. Early View.

Kutateladze, B. L. (2022). Acting “straight”: Socio-behavioral consequences of anti-queer hate crime victimization. Justice Quarterly, 39(5), 1036-1058.

Kutateladze, B. L. (2018). Tracing charge trajectories: A study of the influence of race in charge changes at case screening, arraignment, and disposition. Criminology, 56(1), 123-153.