Karissa Pelletier is a fourth year doctoral candidate in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She is currently working on her dissertation examining the covariates of children and teen firearm homicide victimization. She received her Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2017 from Arizona State University. Her Master's thesis, titled "Motivation to Kill: The Relationship Between Motive and Weapon Choice in Homicide," focused on how motivation affects the selection of weapons by homicide offenders (Chair: Jesenia Pizarro, Ph.D.; Committee: Scott Decker, Ph.D. & Cody Telep, Ph.D.). Her research interests focus on violent crime, homicide, gun control, firearm usage, and domestic violence.

Karissa has experience in both the research and teaching environments. Currently, she is a project manager for the Arizona Intimate Partner Homicide Study under Dr. Jesenia Pizzaro and works with both Dr. Danielle Wallace and Dr. Ojmarrh Mitchell. She also has worked as a research assistant under Dr. Charles Katz and Dr. Shi Yan. Finally, her experience as a teaching assistant spans both the criminology and criminal justice fields, along with both in-person and online courses. 

Karissa earned a B.S. in Sociology focusing on Criminology and Criminal Justice and a B.A. in both Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Rhode Island in 2015. She graduated magna cum laude and additionally had a certificate in Behavioral Analysis from the University of Rhode Island-Feinstein.