Cesar J. Rebellon

Cesar J. Rebellon

Cesar J. Rebellon

Professor

Criminological theory, peer and family influences on juvenile offending, social psychology and crime, offender reentry and desistence, quantitative methods

Cesar J. Rebellon is a Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society. His scholarship develops and tests criminological theory concerning the ways in which peer and family contexts, legal socialization, and legitimate authority affect crime, delinquency, and desistence. He is currently Co-principal Investigator on an interdisciplinary evaluation of whether and why Tempus Novo's (https://www.tempusnovo.org/) employment-based reentry program for formerly incarcerated offenders lowers the risk of re-offending. His prior research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and appears in such journals as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Social Psychology Quarterly, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Criminal Justice, Deviant Behavior, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Law and Human Behavior. Before joining the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University, he was a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, where he served as Department Chair from 2017-2020.

Selected Publications

  • Appleton, C.J., Dara Shifrer, and Cesar J. Rebellon. 2024. Using National Data to Understand the Contextual Factors and Negative Experiences that Explain Racial Differences in the School Misbehavior of Ninth Grade Boys and Girls. Journal of Early Adolescence, 44(8):1023-1048.
  • Manasse, Michelle E., and Cesar J. Rebellon. 2023. Risky and Antisocial Behavior in Adolescence. In The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology and the Law, Allison Redlich and Jodi Quas (Eds.).
  • Gebo, Erika, Cesar J. Rebellon, and Heather Turner. 2022. Specifying the Nature of the Victim-Offender Overlap: A Gendered Analysis of Victimization and Offending Subtypes. Victims & Offenders, 17(3):372-394.
  • Cole, Lindsey M., Nadine T. Maliakkal, Stacy A. Jeleniewski, Cesar J. Rebellon, Karen T. Van Gundy, and Ellen S. Cohn. 2021. The Differential Effects of Parental Style on Parental Legitimacy and Domain Specific Adolescent Rule-Violating Behaviors. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30(5):1229-1246.
  • Sharp, Erin H., Jayson Seaman, Corinna J. Tucker, Karen T. Van Gundy, and Cesar J. Rebellon. 2020. Adolescents’ Future Aspirations and Expectations in the Context of a Shifting Rural Economy. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(2):534-548.
  • Rebellon, Cesar J., Rick Trinkner, Karen T. Van Gundy, and Ellen S. Cohn. 2019. No Guts, No Glory: Do Adolescent Peers Reward Risk Taking with Popularity? Deviant Behavior, 40(12):1464-1479.
  • Rebellon, Cesar J. and Paul Anskat. Crime, Deviance, and Social Control: Travis Hirschi and His Legacy. 2018. The Wiley Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Criminology, edited by Ruth A. Triplett. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
  • Rebellon, Cesar J. and Murray A. Straus. 2017. Corporal punishment, social concern, and crime: An international analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Development, special issue: Family and Cultural Contexts of Parental Discipline and Children’s Adjustment, edited by Jennifer Lansford, 41(4):503-513.
  • Rebellon, Cesar J., Michelle E. Manasse, Robert Agnew, Karen T. Van Gundy, and Ellen S. Cohn. 2016. The Relationship between Gender and Delinquency: Assessing the Mediating Role of Guilt. Journal of Criminal Justice, 44:77-88.
  • Rebellon, Cesar J., J.C. Barnes, and Robert Agnew. 2015. A Unified Theory of Crime and Delinquency: Foundation for a Biosocial Criminology. The Routledge Handbook of Biosocial Criminology, pp. 3-22. Matthew J. Delisi and Michael G. Vaughn (Eds). Routledge.
  • Rebellon, Cesar J., Michelle E. Manasse, Karen T. Van Gundy, and Ellen S. Cohn. 2014. Rationalizing Delinquency: A Longitudinal Examination of the Reciprocal Relationship between Delinquent Attitudes and Behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 77(4):361-386.

Grants and Fellowships

  • 2023 – 2025: Breaking cycles of crime through employment: A study of Tempus Novo’s successful rehabilitation model. GMU Office of Research Innovation and Economic Impact (ORIEI): Take it to the Next Level – Multidisciplinary Research Seed Funding ($100,000). Principal Investigator: Daniel Houser. Co-Principal Investigators: Cesar J. Rebellon and Jia Liu.
  • 2017 – 2023: The interplay of emotion, cognitive, and authority factors in the Legal Socialization Model ($373,597). National Science Foundation, Grant #147904. Principal investigator: Ellen S. Cohn. Co-principal investigators: Cesar J. Rebellon and Karen T. Van Gundy.
  • 2010 – 2015: Legal Socialization and Rule-Violating Behavior ($250,000). National Science Foundation, Grant #1026803. Principal Investigator: Ellen S. Cohn. Co-Principal Investigators: Cesar J. Rebellon and Karen T. Van Gundy.
  • 2006 – 2010: Cognitive Developmental Factors and Rule-violating Behavior: The Role of Personal Attributes, Attitudes, and Peers ($254,918). National Science Foundation, Grant #0550145. Principal Investigator: Ellen S. Cohn. Co-principal Investigators: Cesar J. Rebellon and Karen T. Van Gundy.

Courses Taught

  • CRIM 210: Introduction to Criminology
  • CRIM 302: Delinquency and Juvenile Justice
  • CRIM 595: Causes of Crime
  • CRIM 710: Criminological Theory
  • CRIM 760: Evidence-Based Crime Policy

Education

  • Ph.D., Sociology, Emory University, 2002.
  • M.A., Sociology, Emory University, 1999.
  • B.A., Psychology and Sociology, Rice University, 1996.

Dissertations Supervised

CJ Appleton, Looking Back to Move Forward: A Life-course Examination of Trauma and Desistance (2025)

Lauren Duhaime Bush, Extracurricular Activity Involvement and the Impact of Involvement on Justice System Outcomes (2023)

Daniela Barberi, Culture, Risk, and Reentry in Colombia: Identifying Culturally Competent Risk Factors to Predict Reincarceration (2022)