Criminal justice professor wins award for gang research \ Westminster College

Doctor Andy Bainassociate professor of criminal justice at Westminster College and expert on gangs, has won the 2024 Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for superior achievement in gang research.

Bain is a two-time recipient of the Thrasher Award, presented by the National Gang Crime Research Center (NGCRC) for outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service contributions related to public safety issues. In 2016, he was recognized for Superior Research in Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCG). In 2019, the NGCRC recognized Bain’s efforts and awarded him Expert Status in Gangs and Transnational Organized Crime.

Over the past 20 years, Bain has authored and co-authored numerous academic texts examining the professional role in the criminal justice system, crime and behaviour, and OCGs. He, along with colleagues Dr Mark Lauchs and Dr Peter Bell, provided the first theoretical discourse on motorcycle gangs.

With Lauchs, Bain is the editor of “Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs: International Perspectives – Vol. I and II,” available from Carolina Academic Press. He is the editor of “Law Enforcement and Technology” (2016), available from Palgrave-McMillan, and co-author of “Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs: A Theoretical Perspective” (2015), also available from Palgrave-McMillan.

Bain has published articles in several leading international academic and professional journals on topics such as community policing, crime reduction, and gang membership.

His current research interests include gangs and their members, gangs and the Internet, police technology, policing and social groups, the social psychology of criminal and risk behavior, and the psychology of crime and behavior.

Bain, who joined the faculty of Westminster College in 2023, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southampton and his masters and doctorate from the University of Portsmouth, both in the United Kingdom. Before joining Westminster, he taught at the University of Portsmouth and the University of Mount Union.