Jesenia Pizarro-Terrill studies situational factors around gun violence, specifically, what combination of circumstances might lead to or avoid a shooting, such as weapon selection.

As an associate professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, her research focuses on the importance of understanding the situational factors that result in violence. In doing this, she examines violence and homicide through the lens of theories of crime, and how various contextual factors come together in time and place to result in a homicide. While her research focus centers on violence, she also studies the politics of punishment. With a surge in funding for gun violence studies, she is helping to set the national agenda on research into pediatric firearm injury and death.