Chris Giacomantonio

Education

• DPhil (Criminology), University of Oxford
• MA (Sociology), Dalhousie University
• BA (Criminology), Simon Fraser University

Research Interests

Chris is a criminologist and social policy researcher with over 15 years of experience conducting research in Canada, the US, the UK and the European Union. His academic research has focused on the organization, governance, and reform of public police in democratic societies, and he also conducts social policy and evaluation research on a wide range of topics including criminal justice and security, harm reduction, health and social care, and social finance.

Prior to working at Dalhousie, Chris worked in professional and applied research with organizations including Pier Labs/Davis Pier, the RAND Corporation, and Halifax Regional Police. Chris was previously the co-chair of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Research Advisory Council (RAC) and a member of the International Chiefs of Police RAC.

Chris is the Director of the Clairmont Centre for Community Safety Research, where he is currently leading several projects examining alternatives to policing and the development of new institutions of civilian-led crisis response. He is interested in supervising graduate students with interests in alternatives to policing, police reform and governance, and is open to inquiries from government and community organizations regarding opportunities for applied research projects in justice and social policy.

Selected Publications

Giacomantonio, C., Hodgkinson, T., & Andresen, M. A. (2025). Credence for clearance rates: modeling police clearance rates in Canadian municipalities. Police Practice and Research, 1-18.

Giacomantonio, C. (2024). The birth of an organisational field: the institutionalisation of civilian crisis response services in the de-tasking era. Policing and Society 34(5), 434-448.

Giacomantonio, C., Litmanovitz, Y., Bennell, C., & Jones, D. J. (2022). Expressing uncertainty in criminology: Applying insights from scientific communication to evidence-based policing. Criminology & Criminal Justice, online June 2022. 

Giacomantonio, C., Goodwin, S., & Carmichael, G. (2020). Learning to de-escalate: evaluating the behavioural impact of Verbal Judo training on police constables. Police Practice and Research, 21(4), 401-417.

Giacomantonio, C., Mugford, R., Maslov, A., & Lawrence, A. (2019). Developing a common data standard for measuring attitudes toward the police in Canada. Ottawa: Public Safety Canada.

Giacomantonio, C. (2015). Policing integration: The sociology of police coordination work. London: Palgrave Macmillan.