Brandon Behlendorf

Brandon Behlendorf is currently an Assistant Professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity. He received his PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, he served as Assistant Research Director for Development and a Senior Researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

Dr. Behlendorf's research utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to address policy-relevant problems within homeland and national security, drawing on theories and methods from social and computational sciences. Funded by a number of federal agencies (Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security; National Science Foundation) and reflecting a broad range of applications, his research has focused on a number of themes, including: geospatial modeling of criminal and terrorist activity; network vulnerabilities of illicit trafficking networks; game theoretic approaches to border security; criminal decision-making models of maritime piracy; and whether drone strikes deter future terrorist activity.

His work has been published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, as well as numerous government reports. Committed to transitioning relevant research to policy audiences through direct engagements, Dr. Behlendorf regularly briefs his research to end users within the national, homeland, and international security communities.

Dr. Behlendorf is also committed to bridging the academic and policy communities through collaborative efforts with faculty and practitioners, leading workshops for DHS and NSF, serving on advisory boards for practitioner-focused conferences, and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in their transition to the homeland security workforce. Finally, his teaching ethos is to equip students with the methods, capabilities, and context for deep and relevant engagement in social science research applied to the homeland security community.

CEHC Courses Taught

CEHC 101 Introduction to EHC

CEHC 210 Critical Inquiry and Communication in EHC

CEHC 343 Homeland Security 

CEHC 360 The Legal, Ethical, and Operational Impacts of Unmanned Systems 

CEHC Research Interests

Illicit Trafficking Networks; Violent Victimization across the Life Course; Geospatial Dynamics of Conflicts and their Effects on Individuals; International / Comparative Criminology; Quantitative and Mathematical Modeling of Violence; Policing