Rate My Professor Samantha Balemba-Brownlee

Samantha Balemba-Brownlee is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Montana State University-Northern, where she joined as Assistant Professor in summer 2016 and earned tenure in August 2021. Her career includes prior roles as Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of North Georgia from fall 2014 to spring 2016 and Sessional Instructor at Simon Fraser University from fall 2012 to summer 2014. She also worked as a Research Assistant and Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for Research on Sexual Violence at Simon Fraser University from 2009 to 2013. Balemba-Brownlee holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from Simon Fraser University (August 2014), with a dissertation titled 'The backcloth of sexual assault: The consequences of contextual factors on sex crime outcomes'; an M.A. in Criminology from the same university (September 2010), with a thesis on 'Reactions to resistance: The role of contextual factors in sex offending'; and a B.A. with Highest Honours in Criminology and Criminal Justice, concentration in Psychology and minor in Biology, from Carleton University (June 2008). She teaches courses such as CJUS 494 (Criminal Justice Seminar on topics including sex offenders and moral panics), CJUS 335 (Victimology), CJUS 356 (Sociology of Violence), CJUS 427 (Deviance and Social Control), PSYX 382 (Forensic Psychology), and SOCI 211 (Introduction to Criminology).

Her research specializes in sexual violence, particularly situational correlates affecting sexual assault outcomes, victim resistance, victim vulnerabilities including disabilities, sex offender decision-making, and sexual homicides. Key peer-reviewed publications include Dierenfeldt, R. & Balemba, S. (2021). Male sexual victimization: Examining variation in the probability of weapon use and victim injury. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(11-12), NP5892-NP5920; Balemba, S. & Beauregard, E. (2019). What leads victims to resist? Factors that influence victim resistance in sexual assaults. Journal of Criminal Psychology, 9(3), 122-137; Wong, J. S. & Balemba, S. (2016). The effect of victim resistance on rape completion: A meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(3), 352-365; Wong, J. S. & Balemba, S. (2016). Resisting during sexual assault: A meta-analysis of the effects on injury. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 28, 1-11; Balemba, S., Beauregard, E., & Martineau, M. (2014). Getting away with murder: A thematic approach to solved and unsolved sexual homicides using crime scene factors. Police Practice & Research, 15(3), 221-233; and additional works on spatio-temporal aspects of sexual assaults and offender reactions to resistance (Journal of Sexual Aggression, Crime and Delinquency, Violence and Victims, 2012-2013). During graduate studies, she received the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship ($105,000 over three years, 2010-2013), President's Ph.D. Scholarship, Dr. E. A. Fattah Graduate Scholarship, and Carleton University's Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement (2008). Recent grants include Montana University System TRAILS OER Grants (2020, $3,720; 2021, $930) and Culture of Respect Collective Rape Prevention Education funding ($10,000, 2019).