Michelle Jeanis

Dr. Michelle Jeanis is a criminology, criminal justice, and sociological researcher. Her research interests range from missing persons, juvenile justice, media and crime, and gender and crime. Much of Dr. Jeanis’ research focuses on the missing persons phenomenon. In this research process she works with law enforcement agencies to identify best practices for the recovery of missing persons and runaway youth. In addition, Dr. Jeanis has published peer-reviewed articles that examine the social forces that shape exposure of missing persons cases and related victim recovery. She also maintains the largest missing persons and media attention data base in the nation, which she uses to examine the missing persons phenomenon from a multifaceted approach, as well as train students in social science research methods.

B.S., Psychology, 2010
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

M.S., Psychology, 2012
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

PhD., Criminology, 2017
The University of South Florida

• Missing persons
• Runaway youth
• Media and crime
• Gender and crime
• Victim recovery
• Juvenile justice

Opportunities for Student Research/Collaboration:

Sociological and Psychological Research for Understanding Crime and its Etiology in the SPRUCE@UL Research Lab is always recruiting students to participate at various levels in the research process.

• Jeanis, M.N., Powers, R.A., Miley, L.E., & Shunick, C.E. (2021). The new milk 
• carton campaign: An analysis of engagement in social media. Social Forces, 100(2), 454–476. 
• Jeanis, M.N., Fox, B., Jennings, W., Perkins, R., Liberto, A. (2020). Oooh she’s a 
• little runaway: Examining the invariance of runaway trajectories and risk factors by gender. The Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 6(4), 398-423.
• Edwards, C., Jeanis, M.N., & Khey, D. (2021). Louisiana Crime and Justice in the 21st 
• Century. In P. Cross & C. Maloyed (eds.) The Party is Over: Louisiana Politics in the 21st Century. 
• Jeanis, M.N., Smith, S.A. (2020). Female perpetrators: Risks, needs, and pathways to 
• offending. In Hector, J. (ed.) Female offenders. Sage publishing. 
• Jeanis, M.N. (2020). Missing persons and runaway youth: The role of social media as an 
• Alert system and crime control tool. In A. Masys, J. Reid, & B. Fox (eds.) Science informed policing. New York, NY: Springer. 
• Jeanis, M.N., Muniz, C., & Molbert, C. (2019). Law enforcement and social
• media usage: An analysis of engagement. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice.
• Jeanis, M.N., Fox, B., & Muniz, C. (2018). Revitalizing profiles of runaways: A latent 
• class analysis of delinquent runaway youth. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. DOI: 10.1007/s10560-018-0561-5
• Jeanis, M.N. (2017). Chronic Runaway Youth: A Gender-Based Analysis. (Doctoral 
• dissertation). The University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. 
• Powers, R.A., Kaukinen, C., & Jeanis, M.N. (2017). An Examination of Recidivism among Inmates Released from a Private Reentry Center and Public Institutions in the State of Colorado. The Prison Journal. 0032885517728893.
• Jeanis, M.N. and Powers, R.A. (2016). Newsworthiness of missing persons cases: An analysis of selection bias, disparities in coverage, and the narrative framework of news reports. Deviant Behavior, 38(6), 668-683.

• UL Federal Credit Union/BORSF Endowed Professorship in Liberal Arts 
• (Fall 2022-Spring 2025) 
• The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor (2019-2020 academic year)
• The University of South Florida, Wall of Fame Outstanding Criminology Ambassador (2018-2019 academic year)