Dr. Julie C. Abril PhD

Dr. Abril is a social scientist. She received the PhD in Criminology, Law and Society from the interdisciplinary School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine (2005). She has published globally in the areas of crime and violence, victimization, prisoner issues, identity, and on concerns of Native American Indians. She is the author of "Yaqui Woman: A Native American Indian Cultural View of Identity Power & Evil" (2024) and, "Bad Spirits": An American Indian Explanation for Family Violence" (2024). In 2017, she was awarded the Bonnie S. Fisher Victimology Career Achievement Award from the Division of Victimology, American Society of Criminology. This award goes to the scholar who has made a significant contribution of scholarship to the discipline over the course of their lifetime. Dr. Abril's first book, "Bad Spirits" is held by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Archives, National Museum of the American Indian as an autobiographical account of violence and victimization occurring in 20th century American Indian life, a significant problem continuing into the 21st century. Another of her books, "Scientific Use of American Indian DNA: A Cultural Crime?" was recently re-printed into five new languages and contributes to the growing field of ethical research involving emerging technologies and vulnerable populations. Her most recent books, "Cultural Efficacy: An American Indian Criminological Paradigm" (2025) and "A Theory of the Culture of Crime" (2026) are original contributions to the foundational body of theoretical explanations for crime among American Indian people.