Sue-Ming Yang

Associate Professor

crime and place, criminal justice responses to mental wellness and health issues, experimental methods, international and domestic terrorism

Sue-Ming Yang is Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. She received her PhD from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Her current research focuses on mental wellness related to criminal justice system, experimental research methods, and violence extremism in the U.S. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology. Her recent study (with Charlotte Gill, Yi-Fang Lu, Muneeba Azam, and L. Cait Kanewske) received "Outstanding Experimental Field Trial" from American Society of Criminology's Division of Experimental Criminology.

Selected Publications

*denotes mentored student co-author at the time of publication

Yang, Sue-Ming, SangJun Park, Yi-Fang Lu, and Charlotte E. Gill. (2025). Spatial Concentration and Comorbidity Analysis of Mental Health Calls. Journal of Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102356.

Yang, Sue-Ming, Charlotte Gill, Yi-Fang Lu*, Muneeba Azam*, and L. Caitlin Kanewske.* (2024) Improving police response to people with mental illness in a suburban-rural community: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Experimental Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-023-09603-8

(Received “Outstanding Experimental Field Trial” (Division of Experimental Criminology, ASC)

Yang, Sue-Ming and Yi-Fang Lu. (2024). Evaluation of The Effects of Co-response Model: A Randomized Controlled Trial across Four Agencies. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. DOI10.1093/police/paad080

Carson, Jennifer V., Laura Dugan, and Sue-Ming Yang. (2019). A comprehensive application of rational choice theory: How costs imposed by, and benefits derived from, the U.S. federal government affect incidents perpetrated by the radical eco-movement. Journal of Quantitative Criminology: 36, 701–724 . DOI: 10.1007/s10940-019-09427-8 (authors contributed equally).

Yang, Sue-Ming, Joshua Hinkle, and Laura A. Wyckoff. (2018). Using Multitrait-Multimethod (MTMM) Techniques to Examine the Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Social Disorder. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. DOI: 10.1177/0022427818771109.

Yang, Sue-Ming and I-Chin Jen. (2017). An Evaluation of Displacement and Diffusion Effects on Eco-Terrorist Activities after Police Interventions. Journal of Quantitative Criminology. DOI 10.1007/s10940-017-9367-4.

Yang, Sue-Ming and Chi-Chao Pao. (2015). Do You “See” the Same Thing?: An Experimental Look into the Black Box of Disorder Perception. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 52(4) 534-566.

Hinkle, Joshua and Sue-Ming Yang. (2014). A New Look into Broken Windows: What Shapes Individuals’ Perceptions of Social Disorder? Journal of Criminal Justice, 42(1), 26-35.

Yang, Sue-Ming and Laura A. Wyckoff. (2010). Perceptions of Safety and Victimization: Does Survey Construction Affect Perceptions? Journal of Experimental Criminology, 6(3), 293-323.

Yang, Sue-Ming. (2010).Assessing the Spatial-temporal Relationship between Disorder and Violence. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 26(1): 139-163.

LaFree, Gary, Sue-Ming Yang, and Martha Crenshaw. (2009). Trajectories of Terrorism: Attack Patterns of Foreign Groups that Have Targeted the United States, 1970 to 2004. Criminology and Public Policy, 8(3), 445-473.

Grants and Fellowships

2025-2026 Principal Investigator. “Enhancing Crisis Intervention Training with Practitioners.” Virginia CIT Coalition. ($35,536).

2022-2026 Principal Investigator. “Coalition to Enhance the Capacity of Policing Mental Health Problems in Virginia.” Bureau of Justice Assistance. ($1,483,000).

2022-2023 Co-Principal Investigator. “DHS SIMEX FY22” (with Stephanie Dailey, PI). Contracted through MITRE Corporation. ($40,000).

2021-2023 Principal Investigator. “Partners in Crisis: Improving Police Response to Individuals in Moments of Crisis by Providing Service Alternatives.” National Institute of Justice. ($385,434)

2015-2019 Principal Investigator: “Improving Police Response to Mental Health Crisis in a Rural Area” (with Charlotte Gill, Co-PI). Bureau of Justice Assistance (Smart Policing Initiative) 2015-WY-BX-0007. (Total funding: $627,482 to Roanoke County Police Department. GMU funded amount: $250,000.)

2017-2019 Co-Principal Investigator. “An Examination of the Rising Star Hypothesis in Formal Mentoring” (with Changya Hu, PI). Ministry of Science and Technology. Taiwan. ($547,537).

2013-2015       Principal Investigator: "Exploring the Mechanisms of Social Control in a Relational Society: A Comparison of the Explanatory Effects of Social Ties and Collective Efficacy in Taiwan." National Science Council. Taiwan ($70,000).

2013-2014      Principal Investigator: “Eco-Terrorism and the Corresponding Legislation Efforts to Intervene and Prevent Future Attacks.” The Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS). ($10,876).

2012-2013       Principal Investigator: “Examining the Mechanism Underlying the Perceptions of Disorder.” National Science Council. Taiwan ($25,000).

Courses Taught

CRIM 315 Research Methods and Analysis in Criminology

CRIM 320 Crime and Place

CRIM 562 Crime and Place

CRIM 782 Statistics I

CRIM 783 Statistics II

CRIM 795 Urban Disorder and Crime

CRIM 491 Honors Seminar I

CRIM 492 Honors Seminar II

Recent Presentations

Yang, Sue-Ming. (2025). Professional Collaborative Models between Behavioral Health Professional and the Police in the United States. Crime Prevention Research Center, Academy for Judiciary, Department of Justice, Taiwan. (Invited talk)
Yang, Sue-Ming. (2025). Keynote: Evidence-based Policing. The Third Co-Response Research Symposium. William James College. Boston, MA.
Yang, Sue-Ming. (2025). A Tale of Two RCTs Lessons Learned from Two Field Experiments on Mental Health Co-response Teams in Rural Areas. The Third Co-Response Research Symposium. William James College. Boston, MA. (Invited talk)
Yang, Sue-Ming and Gary LaFree. (2024). What happened in Sri Lanka after 2009? A case study. American Society of Criminology. San Francisco, CA.
Yang, Sue-Ming. (2024). The Effectiveness of a Place-based Co-response Team in Reducing Subsequent Mental Health Episodes. International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference. Boston, MA.
Yang, Sue-Ming, Jen, I-Ching*, and Yi-Fang Lu*. (2024). Exploring the Effects of a Clinician- Dispatch Co-responder Model in Triaging Mental Health Calls. Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy Annual Symposium. Arlington, VA.

Dissertations Supervised

Yi-Fang Lu, Exploring Police Exposure to Critical Incidents, Perceived Stress, and Turnover Intention in a Suburban-Rural Jurisdiction (2024)

Megan Stoltz, Police Decision-Making in Encounters with Persons with Mental Health Conditions: Content Analysis of Officers’ Narrative CIT Reports (2021)