Beidi Dong

Associate Professor

Crime, violence, and health; firearm violence and policy; communities, place, and crime; life-course criminology; computational social science

Dr. Beidi Dong is an Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. He earned his PhD from the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania.

His substantive research focuses on understanding how crime and violence affect the health and well-being of individuals and communities. This work integrates social-contextual and developmental perspectives, examining not only where crime and violence are concentrated but also how exposure to these conditions accumulates and influences people and places over time. His research also examines firearm violence and policy in the United States. He is particularly interested in the consequences of gun violence for local communities, youth gun carrying, and how firearm laws and other policy interventions may influence violence and related health outcomes.

From a methodological standpoint, his research increasingly explores how artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and other emerging technologies can be used to study criminological and public health questions in new ways, as well as how these technological innovations themselves may influence public safety, policing, and health.

Selected Publications

Weisburd, D., Uding, C., Dong, B., & Kuen, K. (2026). Hot Spots of Crime: Social Structure and Social Context at the Micro Geographic Level. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009352864

Dong, B., Camero, B., Weisburd, D., & Uding, C. (2025). The role of community disorder in the association between drug availability and drug use: A moderated mediation analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112811

Houser, T., & Dong, B. (2025). The convergence of artificial intelligence and terrorism: A systematic review of the literature. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2025.2527608

Dong, B., Houser, T., & Koper, C. (2024). Gun violence research from a micro-place perspective: A scoping review. Aggression and Violent Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2024.101951

Dong, B., & Wilson, D. B. (2024). State firearm legislation and initiation of gun carrying in the United States. Injury Prevention. http://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2024-045382

Houser, T., McMillan, A., & Dong, B. (2024). Bridging the gap between criminology and computer vision: A multidisciplinary approach to curb gun violence. Security Journal. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41284-024-00423-7

Dong, B., & Wu, X. (2022). Reaching and engaging people: Analyzing tweeting practices of large U.S. police departments pre- and post- the killing of George Floyd. PLOS ONE, e0269288. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269288

Dong, B. (2021). Developmental comorbidity of substance use and handgun carrying among American youth. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 61(2), 209-216.

Dong, B., White, C., & Weisburd, D. (2020). Poor health and violent crime hot spots: Mitigating the undesirable co-occurrence through focused place-based interventions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 58, 799-806.

Dong, B., Morrison, C., Branas, C. Richmond, T., & Wiebe, D. (2020). As violence unfolds: A space-time study of situational triggers of violent victimization among urban youth. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 36, 119-152.

Courses Taught

CRIM 780 Research Methods

CRIM 710 Criminological Theory

CRIM 515 Criminal Justice Research Methods and Data Analysis

CRIM 491/492 Honors Seminar--Mass Shootings in the United States: Patterns, Causes, and Responses

CRIM 320 Crime and Place

CRIM 315 Research Methods and Analysis in Criminology

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University of Pennsylvania

PhD, Criminology, University of Florida

BSS, Sociology, University of Hong Kong

Dissertations Supervised

Tyler Houser, A Comprehensive Assessment of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States: Motivation, Radicalization, and Attack Patterns (2026)

Gretchen Baas, Understanding the Relationship Between Surviving School Shootings and Subsequent Substance Use (2025)