Denise Boots
Bio
Denise Paquette Boots, Ph.D. received her doctorate in Criminology from the University of South Florida in 2006 and joined the faculty here at UT Dallas in August of that year. She is a former juvenile residential counselor for adjudicated youth, Border Patrol Agent trainee, and Pre-Doctoral Fellow with the National Consortium on Violence Research. Dr. Boots is currently a Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy and is the Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Urban Policy Research.
Her present research focuses on issues related to interpersonal violence and public policy. She has conducted research related to the evaluation of problem-solving courts and programs, neuropsychological correlates of violence, life course perspectives of crime, mental health, child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, parricide, capital punishment, youth crime, and other forms of interpersonal aggression. Her publications provide a critical discussion of key public policy implications relevant to criminological, social, and legal circles while varying methodologies, theoretical models, and methods of analyses.
Dr. Boots teaches classes at both the undergraduate and graduate level and professionalization seminars for advanced graduate students. In 2009, Dr. Boots was one of nine tenure-track professors across the University of Texas system chosen to receive the prestigious UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award for excellence in the classroom. In 2016 she received the President's Teaching Excellence Award. She was also awarded the Evelyn Gilbert Unsung Hero Award (for contributions to criminal justice education and scholarship concerning ethnicity, race, and gender in criminology and criminal justice), Minorities & Women Section, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2016. In 2012 she was the recipient of the University of South Florida Distinguished Alumni Award for the Department of Criminology.
Her professional community service activities include serving as the lead researcher and Executive Committee member for the City of Dallas Domestic Violence Taskforce, as an editorial board member for the respected journal Violence Against Women, and as the founding president and Executive Board member for Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society at UT Dallas. Dr. Boots is frequently called upon as a consultant to various non-profit organizations, is a court-certified expert on family violence, and is regularly sought out by national and local media outlets regarding topics related to interpersonal violence.
Alma Mater
