Kimberly C. Burke, PhD

Sociology – University of California, Berkeley

Research & Teaching Interests: Social Inequality, Race, Criminal Legal Systems, Policing, Gun Violence, Social & Feminist Theory, Mixed-Methods Research Design

KIMBERLY C. BURKE CV

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University, where I examine the intersection of policing and firearm violence within marginalized communities. I earned my Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2024.

My research examines how structural racism embedded in policing institutions creates population-level health consequences that extend far beyond direct police encounters.

At the GVRC, I’m using nationally representative survey data to explore associations between police violence (direct, indirect, and anticipatory) and suicide risk among Black adults. This research illuminates how state violence operates through the social psychology of chronic threat to reproduce racial health disparities..


I’m also co-PI on a $12,000 grant-funded project investigating the experiences of Black gun owners through in-depth interviews in New Jersey and Florida (BFOEProject.org). This comparative study examines how varying state contexts shape firearm behaviors and safety practices among Black communities, raising critical questions about the differential impacts of gun legislation across racial groups.


These current studies build on my previous research examining organizational barriers to police reform and the spillover effects of racially disparate policing. In “Forceful De-escalation and Organizational Inertia” (Critical Criminology), I identified how departments justify low-level violence through what I term “forceful de-escalation”—the preemptive use of force in response to passive noncompliance. My presentation of these findings won second place in the 2022 UC Grad Slam Competition (video below). My dissertation used in-depth interviews to explore how policing inequities shape intimate interracial relationships, revealing how law enforcement reinforces racial hierarchies in everyday interactions.


Before graduate school, I served as an Associate Project Director at the Center for Policing Equity, helping to lead a $4.75 million DOJ grant to improve police-community relationships across six pilot cities.


I have a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. in Women’s Studies from San Diego State University.

Academic Publications:

Peer Reviewed

  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2025. “Loving in the Time of George Floyd: How Cultural Models Shape Interracial Couples’ Responses to Racialized Policing.” Social Problems spaf039. doi:10.1093/socpro/spaf039.
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Jeremy Levine, Tanya Sharpe, Kimberly C. Burke, & Brielle Savage. 2025. “Racial Disparities in Victim Compensation among Homicide Survivors in the United States.” Race and Justice. (Forthcoming).
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Tara Warner, Samantha Francois, Kimberly C. Burke & Michael D. Anestis. 2025. “The Salience of Social Support for Firearm Behaviors in the United States.” Injury Prevention. (Forthcoming).
  • Bond, Allison E., Taylor R. Rodriguez, Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Michael D. Anestis. 2025. Examining demographic characteristics of firearm owners currently engaged in mental health treatment. Journal of Clinical Psychology. http://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.70048
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Christopher Thomas, Richard Stansfield, David Johnson, Kimberly C. Burke, & Michael D. Anestis. 2025. “Local Homicides Increase Suicide in US Counties.” Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118406.
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Kimberly C. Burke, Devon Ziminski, Brielle Savage, Michael D. Anestis, and Richard Stansfield. 2025. “In-person and media gun violence exposure in the United States: prevalence and disparities in a nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of adults.” The Lancet Regional Health–Americas. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2025.101101
  • Anestis, Michael D., Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Daniel C. Semenza. 2025. “Lifetime and Past-Year Defensive Gun Use.” JAMA Netw Open https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0807
  • Anestis, Michael D., Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Daniel Semenza. “Lifetime and Past-Year Defensive Gun Use.” JAMA Netw Open https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0807
  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2024.“Forceful De‑escalation and Organizational Inertia: Identifying Novel Justifications for Entrenched Police Violence.” Critical Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-024-09797-x
  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2020. Democratic Policing and Officer Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00874

Invited Chapters, Book Reviews

  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2019. Implicit bias, officer wellness, and police training. In K. Papazoglou & D. Blumberg (Eds.), POWER: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, Inc.
  • Book Review: Nare, J., Burke K., Hastings, L., & Rothblum, E.D. (2009). Review of Transgendered Voices: Beyond Women and Men. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, 14(2), 169-171.
  • Book Review: Burke, K., Franco, N.R., Bowman, K.B., & Rothblum, E.D. (2009). Review of The N Word: Who Can Say It. Who Shouldn’t. And Why. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 10(4),320-323.

Articles in Preparation

  • Burke, Kimberly C., Allison E. Bond, Michael D. Anestis, & Daniel C. Semenza. “Fear of Police Violence and Suicide Risk Among Black Americans.” Under review.
  • Anestis, Michael D., Allison E. Bond, Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Daniel C. Semenza. “Changes in firearm intentions and behaviors after the 2024 United States presidential election.” Under review.
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Sultan Altikriti, Kimberly C. Burke, & Christopher Thomas. “How Gun Violence Exposure Shapes Racial Health Inequities among Adults in the United States.” Under review.

Public Scholarship & Media

“Dualistic thinking sets up a hierarchy that privileges one aspect of our identity over another, creating false dichotomies between mind and body, reason and emotion, culture and nature, and other arbitrary divisions that limit our understanding of the world and ourselves.”

— Gloria Anzaldúa