Westminster professor wins award for gang research

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (WKBN) — A Westminster College associate professor of criminal justice has won the 2024 Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for outstanding achievement in gang investigations.

Dr. Andy Bain is a two-time winner of the Thrasher Award, presented by the National Gang Crime Research Center (NGCRC) for outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service related to public safety issues.

In 2016, Bain 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 written and co-authored numerous academic texts on 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, according to a press release from the college.

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.