Racheal Pesta - Assistant Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, Criminology and Social Work

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How did you get to Eastern?

“I came to Eastern with a very different undergraduate experience than our students receive. I attended a large public institution where an overwhelming majority of students commuted, large class sizes were the norm, and faculty-student interaction was minimal. And while I made the most of my undergraduate education, I always felt I had missed out on something, like the sense of community that comes with living on campus and making meaningful connections with faculty. I was eager to begin my career at Eastern as it is a very different experience from my own. I believe that my own undergraduate experience is what makes me so grateful to work at place like Eastern.”

What is your favorite course to teach?

“My favorite class to teach is CRM 320: The Death Penalty in America. It is an interesting topic because everybody has an opinion on the subject but many do not know very much about capital punishment and how it is carried out in this country. We spend time addressing the history of the death penalty as well as contemporary issues such as wrongful conviction and botched executions. It is interesting to see how students’ views evolve and become more nuanced as they learn more about the process. Students become very invested in the material as well as the stories of those impacted by the capital punishment process.”

What is your research focus?

“As a criminologist, I am very interested in exploring the racial and gender disparities we see in the criminal justice system. Much of my work has focused on explaining the negative impact of school suspension and expulsion across race and gender on adolescents’ life outcomes including engagement in delinquency and criminal offending in adulthood. My most recent work investigates the gender gap in policing. Women make up only 12% of law enforcement employees, a number that has stagnated since the 1990s. At a time where many police departments are trying to diversify their workforce, women continue to be underrepresented. To address the shortage of female recruits, I teamed up with Eastern’s Department of Public Safety and the Willimantic Police Department to create a “Women in Policing” mentorship program which brought together female Eastern students and female police officers of various ranks throughout the state of Connecticut to discuss different aspects of the job. The program ran in fall 2022 and is scheduled to run again in spring 2024.”