José Miguel Cruz

Areas of Expertise Transnational gangs | Police in international contexts | Criminal governance Education  Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Political Science, 2010                                        M.A., Vanderbilt University, Political Science, 2008                                       M.Sc., Oxford University, Public Policy, 2003                                                     B.A., Universidad Centroamericana, Psychology, 1991

Contact

Office: MARC-270                                                                                                                                                                                        Phone: 305.348.5952
Email: jomcruz@fiu.edu

 

Biography

José Miguel Cruz is an associate professor at the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He serves as the director of the Center for the Administration of Justice at FIU. Professor Cruz holds a B.A. (Licenciatura) degree in Psychology from the University of Central America in San Salvador (Universidad Centroamericana – UCA). He received his M.Sc. in Public Policy from St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University. Before joining the Department, Professor Cruz served as research director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU and as director of the Institute for Public Opinion (IUDOP) at the University of Central America. He is an expert in the areas of criminal violence, gangs, police, and public opinion in Central America. He has published over one hundred scholarly articles and four books on several topics, including criminal violence, policing, street gangs, and criminal governance in Latin America.  

Select Publications

Cruz, José Miguel, & Jonathan D. Rosen. (2024). “Transnational Gangs? Understanding Migration and Gangs.” In The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society, edited by D. C. Pyrooz, J. A. Densley and J. Leverso: Oxford University Press.

Cruz, José Miguel & Jonathan D. Rosen. (2024). Leaving the Pervasive Barrio: Gang Disengagement under Criminal Governance. Social Problems 71 (1): 254–270. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac001.

Cruz, José Miguel, Jonathan D. Rosen, & Yemile Mizrahi. (2023). The long arm of the gang: Disengagement under gang governance in Central America. Criminology 61(4) (2023): 929-956. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12352

Kloppe-Santamaría, Gema, & José Miguel Cruz. (2023). The “New Wars”: security and cooperation in Mexico and Northern Central America. Crime Law and Social Change,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-023-10130-w.

Rosen, Jonathan D., & José Miguel Cruz. (2023). Dancing with the devil: Intervention programs under criminal governance in Northern Central America. Criminology & Criminal Justice 0 (0): https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958221140.

Cruz, José Miguel. (2022). Police Legitimacy and Hybrid Security Orders in Central America. Social Forces 100 (4):1833-1855.  https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab087.

Cruz, José Miguel, & Yulia Vorobyeva. (2022). State Presence, Armed Actors, and Criminal Violence in Central America. The Sociological Quarterly 63 (4):641-660.

Cruz, José Miguel, & Jonathan D. Rosen. (2020). Mara forever? Factors associated with gang disengagement in El Salvador. Journal of Criminal Justice 69: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101705.