UC Faculty Awards 2021: Bonnie Fisher

Fisher has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on large scale national level studies, including four federally-funded research projects involving the interpersonal victimization of college students, sexual victimization of college women and campus-level responses to a report of sexual assault. She has been able to secure over 50 grants totaling several million dollars to support her research, as her methods of measuring victimization are considered by many to have set the standard. Her research interests include issues concerning repeat victimization, fear of crime and injury detection of rape victims. She has published in the leading journals in her field, included Criminology, Justice Quarterly, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Crime and Delinquency. Professor Fisher is the co-editor of the Security Journal and the Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention. She also served on the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Measuring Rape and Sexual Assault for three years.

Not surprisingly, Fisher has received nearly every major award/recognition from both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.  Most telling is that the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Victimology (which she co-founded) has named their career achievement award "The Bonnie S.  Fisher   Career Achievement Award in Victimology." Her efforts also translate to the community at large, and in 2020 Fisher received the “Warrior Award” bestowed by Women Helping Women, a Cincinnati-based gender-based violence prevention and advocacy agency serving Southwestern Ohio.

Additionally, Fisher has contributed to the academic and student development missions of the School of Criminal Justice and the university. She has contributed to graduate student training, for example, by chairing and serving on dozens of dissertation committees and by mentoring countless students and her research is considered required reading for students of victimology, as it informs both theory and practice.