James Densley
Professor, Author, Founder, Keynote Speaker, Coach
Dr. James Densley is a Professor and Department Chair of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Metro State University, and Co-Founder of The Violence Prevention Project Research Center ("The Violence Project") at Hamline University, both in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He earned his doctorate in sociology from the University of Oxford. Densley has authored nine books and edited two more, including the bestselling The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic, which won the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in top scientific journals, and over 100 chapters and essays in outlets such as The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, TIME, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
Densley has helped secure over US$10 million in external funding for basic and applied scholarship, and his research on street gangs, criminal networks, violence, and policing has garnered global media attention. He became Metro State University's first "University Scholar" in 2019, and, for his outstanding community volunteerism in co-founding Growing Against Violence, Densley received the Points of Light Award from the UK Prime Minister in 2017. Densley previously worked as a special education teacher in the New York City public schools. He has been an invited keynote/plenary speaker on four continents, given testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights, the 9/11 Review Commission, state legislatures, and city councils, and consulted for the United Nations, the Home Office, Scotland Yard, and the FBI National Academy.
Densley also coaches varsity boys soccer at Mounds Park Academy and serves on the board of North Suburban Soccer Association (NSSA).
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