Jessica W. Gillooly

Jessica W. Gillooly is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Suffolk University. Her research sits at the boundary of the criminal legal system and the resolution of social problems. She comes at this work through studying the 911 call-for-service system. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, she examines the policies and practices by which police (a) are dispatched to 911 calls, (b) primed by 911 dispatchers before arriving to an incident, and (c) could be diverted from certain types of calls altogether by using alternative methods of response. 

Her findings about the function of the 911 call-taker in policing appeared in Criminology and Public Policy, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM), Law & Social Inquiry, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Crime Report, and The Hill. Her JPAM article received the annual Raymond Vernon Memorial Award for best paper. She is performing services as a 911 subject-matter expert for the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

Jessica defended her dissertation and received her dual Ph.D. in Sociology and Public Policy from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2020. 

Email: jgillooly@suffolk.edu