Her teaching and research interests include the relationship between animal cruelty and other forms of delinquency and criminality, juvenile delinquency and aggression, violence and victimology, and corrections. She has published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation and International Criminal Justice Review. Additionally, in March 2010, she published a book titled Of Fists and Fangs: An Exploration of the Degree to Which the Graduation Hypothesis Predicts Adolescent Delinquency and Aggression. Prior to starting her career in academia, she worked as a probation and parole officer-bilingual for approximately 10 years and briefly as a county correctional officer.