ASU professor is new president of organization that studies firearms safety

An Arizona State University criminology and criminal justice professor who is a nationally recognized expert on gun violence is the new president of the Research Society for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms.

Professor Jesenia Pizarro recently returned from the national organization’s third annual conference, held Dec. 9-11 in Seattle, where she began her two-year term as its president following service in 2023-2024 as the society’s inaugural secretary.

Pizarro, a full professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, now chairs the 15-member board of the society, composed of mostly academics in health fields who conduct research but do not engage in advocacy. Pizarro succeeds Professor Sonali Rajan of the Columbia University Teachers College’s Department of Health Studies and Applied Educational Psychology. As a criminologist, Pizarro said she is a rare exception among the society’s membership.

Pizarro emphasized that the society is nonpartisan – “we let the science do the talking,” she said – and does not take sides in the national firearms debate.

“We will ask, how can science help inform strategies, policies and approaches that will make our society safer?” she said.

Pizarro said she will work to bring many disciplines together toward this goal, including criminology, sociology, public health, law, the humanities and others. She said she plans for professionals in each field to innovate toward creative solutions based on common ground.

Citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other statistics, Pizarro said each year 250,000 firearm-related deaths occur worldwide, 25% of them in the United States. U.S. fatality rates due to firearms have increased by almost 35% from 2011 to 2020, she said, with firearms responsible for more than 400,000 deaths and 1.1 million emergency department visits for non-fatal injuries during that time.

Pizarro said the society plans to mentor and train the next generation of firearms safety researchers, because federal funding for such research has been nonexistent for more than 25 years.

“Now more than ever, we know that we need to study this, as firearms injuries and harm affect everyone in the United States,” people in every community, rural and urban and among people of all races and ethnicities, she said. “How do we train our junior scholars and trainees to more effectively to talk to teenagers, to lawmakers, and bring consensus?”

Pizarro said the dialogue starts with common ground, such as how everyone believes children should be safe at school and veterans should be helped to avoid self-harm.

“There are ways to deal with this problem that do not involve taking rights away from law-abiding, responsible gun owners,” she said.

Watts Endowed Professor for Public Safety Beth Huebner, director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said she is “incredibly proud” of Pizarro.

“Her becoming president of this society is a testament to her exceptional leadership and dedication to creating safer communities,” Huebner said. “Her vision and expertise embody the society’s mission to advance research and evidence-based solutions that reduce firearm-related harms and promote public safety. This milestone not only celebrates her achievements as a top scholar in the region, but also reinforces the ASU mission to advance research and real-world interventions that promote public well-being.”

More than 800 researchers, mostly academics, attended the 2024 conference to hear more than 400 presentations from experts at over 250 institutions. More than two dozen research disciplines were represented in the presentations, including medicine, public health, anthropology, business, economics, criminology/criminal justice, sociology, social work and engineering.

The society organized the conference with support from the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, the Columbia Scientific Union for the Reduction of Gun Violence (SURGE) and ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Here is a complete list of the conference’s sponsors.

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is part of the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.