Danielle Rousseau

Dr. Danielle Rousseau is an assistant professor of Criminal Justice at BU’s Metropolitan College and the Faculty Coordinator of BU’s Prison Education program.

Rousseau has worked in the field of forensic mental health as a therapist in correctional facilities for both men and women, as well as in the community doing crisis response and victim services. Most recently, Rousseau worked in the mental health department of Massachusetts’ correctional facility for women, winning multiple awards from the Massachusetts Department of Correction for her efforts. Her professional focus has been in trauma services, helping survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence. Outside of her work in correctional facilities, she has established therapeutic programs for veterans, and has traveled to Haiti to work with earthquake survivors. Rousseau’s research focuses on the areas of sentencing; race and gender disparities in justice; the treatment of women within the criminal justice system; the use of mindfulness techniques for treating trauma; crime and popular media; and hate crime. She received the ASC Division of Corrections and Sentencing Student Paper Award as well as the Young Scholars Award from the University at Albany’s Symposium on Crime and Justice–The Past and Future of Empirical Sentencing Research. Her work is published in the Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, the Law and Society Review, The Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and other academic journals and books.

Rousseau received her M.A. in Clinical Forensic Psychology and her Ph.D. in Criminology and Justice Policy and Women’s Studies.