YSU criminal justice professor to share expertise with international audience

Faculty Spotlight

Ryan Roberts, assistant professor of criminal justice at Youngstown State University, will share his research on gangs, prisons and applied intelligence with an international audience of government officials and public-security advisors during an October virtual course on organized crime and hybrid threats.

Roberts was invited by Colombia’s Instituto de Ciencia Politica Hernán Echavarría Olózaga in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung to serve as a guest professor in the program’s second specialized course on organized crime and hybrid threats. He will lead two sessions Oct. 6 and 8.

The opportunity reflects Roberts’ work at the intersection of public safety, criminal justice and international security. Before entering academia, he worked as a correctional officer specializing in security-threat intelligence and served on a prison emergency response team. He later earned a doctorate in international security from Old Dominion University.

Roberts’ research examines gangs not as isolated local groups, but as dynamic networks whose influence can extend across criminal organizations, institutions and borders. He published one book this year on the threat-multiplier effect on gang networks, has a second book scheduled for release next month and is developing a third volume focused on applied intelligence.

“It is rewarding to know that my research is reaching an audience beyond the pages. This opportunity allows me to share that work directly with an international group of public-safety professionals,” Roberts said.

During the course, Roberts will discuss how gang networks can challenge law and order, weaken institutions and undermine the structural integrity of a state. His research focuses on three dimensions of gang networks: relationships among gangs, ties to criminal and terrorist organizations and connections to security or political institutions.

“Gang networks act as a threat multiplier,” Roberts said. “Instead of viewing them as isolated neighborhood groups, I focus on their network orientation.”

That approach is especially relevant as public-safety professionals confront criminal organizations that adapt quickly to changing conditions and exploit jurisdictional boundaries. Roberts said effective responses require practitioners to look beyond narrow or localized definitions of gangs and recognize their varying capabilities, mobility and connections.

“The question then becomes, do we wait for them to adapt or do we remain vigilant and anticipate those changes before they have an opportunity to adapt?” he said.

The sessions will also address challenges that can limit intelligence-led responses to organized crime, including inconsistent definitions, restricted access to information and uneven data collection across jurisdictions. Roberts plans to provide foundational reading materials and explore practical questions surrounding data accessibility and reliability.

The engagement also strengthens YSU’s criminal justice program by connecting its teaching and scholarship to an international exchange of ideas. Roberts said the experience will inform his courses in gang studies and immigration, policing and enforcement, while giving students the benefit of perspectives from practitioners working in different public-safety contexts.

By bringing those insights back to YSU, Roberts will help students examine organized crime as a dynamic, interconnected challenge – and prepare them to think more critically about the intelligence, collaboration and adaptability needed to address it.