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Miguel Quintana-Navarrete

Miguel Quintana-Navarrete

Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Law & Society

Assistant Professor (by courtesy), Department of Sociology

Biography

Miguel Quintana-Navarrete, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law & Society and Assistant Professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, where he is also affiliated faculty with the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy. His research examines criminal justice systems, violence, and social inequality in Latin America and the United States. Quintana-Navarrete received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University in 2020.

Quintana-Navarrete has published 18 peer-reviewed journal articles in outlets including the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and Criminology & Criminal Justice. His empirical work spans multiple countries in Latin America, analyzing topics such as the role of public defenders in Mexico, disparities in prosecutorial and judicial decision-making in Argentina and Chile, forced disappearances of indigenous peoples in Mexico, and the effects of community violence on children's cognitive performance and adult health outcomes. He has also examined homicide dynamics in Los Angeles as part of a multi-year collaborative project.

Quintana-Navarrete serves as principal investigator on a National Institute of Justice grant examining the situational dynamics of homicide in Los Angeles from 1990 to present, a $877,000 project conducted with co-investigators George Tita, Jeffrey Brantingham, and Craig D. Uchida. Before his doctoral studies, he worked as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Justice of the state of Sonora, Mexico, and as a research assistant at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City, where he contributed to multiple research projects on public security, victimization, and criminal justice institutions.

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Education

  • Ph.D. in Sociology, Harvard University, 2020
  • A.M. in Sociology, Harvard University, 2017
  • M.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice, King's College London, 2011
  • B.A. in Law, Universidad de Sonora, 2006
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Distinctions

  • MA Criminology and Criminal Justice School of Law Prize for best student (joint winner), King's College London, 2010
  • Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates, Harvard University, 2019
  • Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, 2016-2018
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Areas of Expertise

  • Criminology and Criminal Justice
  • Prosecutorial Decision-Making Disparities
  • Public Defenders Versus Private Attorneys
  • Pretrial Detention Outcomes
  • Violence Effects on Cognitive Performance
  • Homicide Situational Dynamics
  • Forced Disappearances and Indigenous Peoples

Recent Publications

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Contact Information

Email: miguelrq@uci.edu

Phone: (949) 824-7577

Address: 2309 Social Ecology 2, Irvine, CA 92697-7080

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This profile was created with the help of AI.

Last updated on 3/24/2026.