Joshua Harms is a Professor of Criminal Justice and interim Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Middle Tennessee State University. He joined the faculty in 2011 as an assistant professor, earning promotion to associate professor in 2017 and to full professor in 2022.

Dr. Harms earned his Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2011, following an M.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at Arlington and a B.A. in Psychology from Harding University. Before transitioning into a career in academia, he worked in the Dallas County Adult Probation Office as a field officer and in the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.

His professional background in the justice system informs both his teaching and research, which focus on bridging the gap between scholarship and practice. His current research interests include violent crime, terrorism financing, criminal theory, and quantitative research methods.

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• Harms, J. and Bush, M. (2022). A comparative analysis of knife and firearm homicides in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 37, no. 19-20.
• Harms, J. and Stickle, B. (2021). Are your packages safe from porch pirates? The Crime Report.
• Hicks, M., Stickle, B., and Harms, J. (2020). Assessing the fear of package theft. American Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 3-22.
• Smith, C. and Harms, J. (2020). The threat of street gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and domestic terrorist/extremist groups with military-trained members. In Strategic Notes on Third Generation Gangs: A Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology (pp. 383-408).
• Smith, C. and Harms, J. (2018). Street gangs, terrorists and outlaw bikers: Examining the community threat of organized crime groups with military trained members. The Journal of Gang Research, vol. 25, no. 2, p. 1-13.
• Harms, J. and Wade, L. (2017). Reconnecting with the public: Police use of social media. The Journal of Law Enforcement, vol. 6, no. 1.
• Harms, J. (2015). The war of terror and accomplices: An exploratory study of individuals who provide material support to terrorists. Security Journal, 1-20.

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