Howard Henderson is a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. He also serves as the founding director of the Center for Justice Research in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University. He is a professor of justice administration and former graduate program director in the Administration of Justice Department. Henderson also serves as an advisory board member of the Vera Institute’s Rural Jail Research Policy Network and as a member of the National Scientific Advisory Committee at the Institute of Justice Research and Development at Florida State University.
Henderson is an expert on culturally responsive criminal justice research, program evaluation and predictive bias. An equity-focused criminologist, his research takes a systems-based approach to understanding policy and program effects. Utilizing a translational research model, Howard’s research has demonstrated the inability of current policy and programming to remain race-neutral, in effect, negatively impacting historically disenfranchised communities. His research has provided approaches to reducing disparities in the criminal justice system and within its risk assessment instruments.
Recently, Henderson served as the chair of the data subcommittee for Houston’s Racial/Ethnic Disparities Committee Data Workgroup supported by the MacArthur Foundation. Howard was also critical to the National Science Foundation-funded project with the Baylor College of Medicine’s Initiative on Neuroscience and Law that designed an iPAD assessment application that determined decision-making characteristics of the criminal justice involved through a range of cognitive traits. Dr. Henderson has also developed a multi-university research collaborative that provides mentoring opportunities for minority graduate students and junior university-level faculty.
His research on predictive bias and program evaluation has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Department of Justice, and most recently the collaborative efforts of the Center for Advancing Opportunity, Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Charles Koch Foundation. Henderson has served as an advisor for local, state and federal legislators and a host of criminal justice agencies along with reform-oriented organizations.
Henderson’s most recent research has appeared in Race & Justice, Journal of Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice & Behavior, Sociology of Race & Ethnicity, and the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics. His public scholarship has been published in the Huffington Post, Houston Chronicle, and the Texas Tribune. Awarded the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Minority Mentor of the Year in 2019, Henderson has appeared on CNN, FOX, NBC, CNBC, ABC, Black News Channel, and the Laura Coates Show. His research has been cited by Politico, Vice, Aljazeera, Yahoo News, and The Crime Report.
He received his B.S. in criminal justice administration from Middle Tennessee State University, his Master’s in criminal justice from Tennessee State University, and his Ph.D. in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University in 2006.
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Current Positions
- Founding Director of the Center for Justice Research in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, Texas Southern University
- Professor of Justice Administration, Texas Southern University
- Advisory Board Member of the Rural Jail Research Policy Network, Vera Institute
- Member of the National Scientific Advisory Committee at the Institute of Justice Research and Development, Florida State University
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Education
- Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University
- M.A. in Criminal Justice, Tennessee State University
- B.S. in Criminal Justice Administration, Middle Tennessee State University