Karen Heimer is Professor of Sociology & Criminology, Collegiate Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Distinguished Research Fellow of the Public Policy Center at the University of Iowa. Heimer researches and teaches in the areas of gender and violence, juvenile delinquency, criminal punishment, and causes of crime and violence. She currently is conducting research on the violent victimization of women and minorities, gender differences in juvenile delinquency, and gender and race differences in patterns of incarceration.  She is a principal investigator on a community partnership grant from the National Institute of Justice to implement and evaluate an intervention to reduce trauma, problem behaviors, and violence in an Iowa school district. Heimer's past work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Justice. She was elected Fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2015, and served as the president of the association in 2018.  She is a recipient of the 2018 Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence and the 2019 UI’s Hancher-Finkbine Faculty Medallion.