Dr. Michael Barton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama. His research examines the importance of spatial and temporal correlates of crime at the neighborhood level (space, time and crime). He is primarily a quantitative scholar, but he has co-authored theoretical research as well. His research has primarily focused on interrogating the relationship of gentrification with crime, but he has also examined the importance of neighborhood and community correlates for crime on college campuses and in New Orleans neighborhoods pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina. His current research engages with urban bias in criminology by examining the neighborhood correlates of crime in smaller and medium-sized U.S. cities.
Dr. Barton received his doctorate in Sociology with emphases in criminology, urban sociology, and social demography from The University of Albany. His work has appeared in several journals including Journal of Criminal Justice, Crime & Delinquency, Deviant Behavior and Urban Studies.