Biography
Katherine McLean, Ph.D., associate professor of criminal justice, is a sociologist and ethnographer whose research explores the intersection between criminal justice and public health. Her research considers how the simultaneous criminalization and medicalization of illicit drug use impact individual identity, community health, and social institutions.
She is particularly interested in "harm reduction" strategies like syringe exchange, and how such programs exist within and adapt to the "war on drugs." Her current research explores how criminal-moral understandings of drug use perpetuate stigma, even as evidence-based interventions proliferate and gain acceptance.
Students in Dr. McLean’s classes can expect an environment that invites diverse forms of participation and hands-on learning. In-class assignments might involve VR headsets and the creation of 360 tours, while podcasting projects and student teaching presentations may replace traditional “final exams.” Dr. McLean endeavors to create opportunities for student voice and choice, and welcomes student suggestions for course materials, topics, and projects. By allowing students to chart their own interest-driven paths, she hopes they will leave class better prepared for their chosen careers.
Research Interests
- Illicit drug use
- Harm reduction
- Public health
- Critical criminology
Publications
The effectiveness paradox: Assessing support for K-12 concealed carry by teachers, staff, and parents, Journal of School Violence - 2025
Collaborators: Bobur Rakhmatuallaev, Student Author; Alexander Kinney, Co-Author; Nathan Kruis, Co-Author; Nicholas Rowland, Co-Author
A mixed-method exploratory assessment of provider-based stigma of opioid use disorder (OUD) and support for medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in carceral settings, Harm Reduction Journal - August 18, 2025
Collaborators: Nathan Kruis, Co-Author; Annabelle Belcher, Co-Author; Eric Weintraub, Co-Author; Heather Fitzsimmons, Co-Author; Christopher Welch, Co-Author; Natalie Spicyn, Co-Author; Brook Kearley, Co-Author; Nicholas Rowland, Co-Author
Medical-legal partnerships for women with co-occurring intimate partner violence and opioid use disorder: an exploratory study, Violence Against Women - June 5, 2025
Collaborators: Penelope Morrison; Richard Wentling; Elizabeth Schachte, Student Author; Bobur Rakhmatullaev, Student Author
“They are notoriously not very honest”: Provider-Based Stigma and the Challenge of Holistic Care for Women Experiencing IPV and OUD, Journal of Family Violence - September 28, 2024
Collaborators: Richard Wentling, Co-Author; Bobur Rakhmatuallaev, Student Author; Elizabeth Schachte, Student Author; Penelope Morrison, Co-Author
Psychoactive Drug Use in Sport - September 24, 2024
Correlates of staff acceptability of a novel telemedicine buprenorphine program in a rural detention center , Journal of Correctional Healthcare - August 16, 2024
Collaborators: Annabelle Belcher, Primary Author; Brook Kearly, Co-Author; Nathan Kruis, Co-Author; Nicholas Rowland, Co-Author; Natalie Spicyn, Co-Author; Thomas Cole, Co-Author; Eric Weintraub, Co-Author; Christopher Welch, Co-Author
“I think we're getting better but we're still not there”: Provider-based stigma and perceived barriers to care for people who use opioids (PWUO), Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment - December 20, 2023
Collaborators: Jennifer Murphy, Co-Author; Nathan Kruis, Co-Author
Introduction to the U.S. Criminal Justice System - December, 2022
Collaborators: Burke Alison; David Carter; Brian Fedorek; Tiffany Morey; Lori Rutz-Burri; Shanell Sanchez
'I'm not a good drug dealer': Styles of Buprenorphine Diversion in Central and Western Pennsylvania, Substance Use and Misuse - 2022
Collaborator: Philip Kavanaugh, Co-Author
Policies in need of a problem? A qualitative study of medical and nonmedical opioid use among college student-athletes in the United States, Social Sciences - December 19, 2022
Students as assessment partners: A collaborative, qualitative evaluation of the guns on campus CURE , International Journal of Students as Partners - October 18, 2022
Collaborators: Samantha Penascino, Co-Author; Jazzmine McCauley, Co-Author; Rachel Russell, Co-Author; David Bish, Co-Author; Nathan Kruis, Co-Author
The “guns on campus” study: A collaborative course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) in criminal justice, Journal of Criminal Justice Education - September 10, 2022
Collaborators: Nathan Kruis; David Bish; Bobur Rakhmatullaev, Co-Author
First responders' views of naloxone: Does stigma matter?, Substance Use & Misuse - July 6, 2022
Collaborators: Nathan Kruis, Author; Payton Perry, Student Author; Marielle Nackley, Student Author
"Who should carry guns on campus? Assessing variations in support for campus carry across campus community membership status.", Journal of School Violence - June, 2022
Collaborators: Nathan Kruis, Primary Author; Bobur Rakhmatullaev, Co-Author; David Bish, Co-Author
Policing pain: a qualitative study of non-criminal justice approaches to managing opioid overdose during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Journal of Prevention in the Community - 2021
Collaborator: Sandra Trappen, Author
Exploring first responders’ perceptions of medication-assisted treatment: Does stigma influence attitudes?, Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment - December, 2021
Collaborators: Nathan Kruis, Author; Payton Perry, Co-Author
Treatment trajectories and barriers in opioid agonist therapy for people who inject drugs in rural Puerto Rico, Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment - August, 2021
Collaborators: Roberto Abadie, Author; Patrick Habecker, Co-Author; Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Co-Author; Kirk Dombrowski, Co-Author
Risk and enabling environments in sport: Systematic doping as harm reduction, International Journal of Drug Policy - May, 2021
Collaborators: April Henning, Author; Jesper Andreasson, Co-Author; Paul Dimeo, Co-Author
The “crime on campus” study: Course-based undergraduate research and student confidence, Journal of Criminal Justice Education - March, 2021
Collaborators: Laura Cruz, Co-Author; Charles Goff, Student Author
Motivations for diverted buprenorphine use in a multisite qualitative study, Journal of Drug Issues - July, 2020
Collaborator: Philip Kavanaugh, Author
Visualizing age, period, and cohort patterns of substance use in the US opioid crisis, Socius - February 13, 2020
Collaborators: Ashton Verdery, Author; Kira England, Co-Author; Alexander Chapman, Co-Author; Liying Luo, Co-Author; Shannon Monnat, Co-Author
“They're making it so hard for people to get help:” Motivations for non-prescribed buprenorphine use in a time of treatment expansion, International Journal of Drug Policy - September, 2019
Collaborator: Philip Kavanaugh, Co-Author
Understanding opioid users' views on fentanyl could help reduce overdoses, Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion Research Brief (Syracuse University) - June, 2019
Nonmedical opioid use onset: Implications for intervention, Journal of Addictive Diseases - May, 2019
Collaborators: Khary Rigg, Author; Shannon Monnat, Co-Author; Glenn Sterner, Co-Author; Ashton Verdery, Co-Author
Governing Habits: Treating Alcoholism in the Post-Soviet Clinic (Review), The Anthropology of Eastern Europe Review - April, 2019
“You never know what you’re getting”: Opioid users’ perceptions of fentanyl in southwest Pennsylvania, Substance Use & Misuse - January 24, 2019
Collaborators: Shannon Monnat, Co-Author; Khary Rigg, Co-Author; Glenn Sterner, Co-Author; Ashton Verdery, Co-Author
A kind of peace: Tracking the reflexive and resilient drug war, International Journal of Drug Policy - January, 2018
From "junkies" to "soccer moms": Newspaper representations of overdose, 1988 - 2014, Critical Criminology - September, 2017
Good Samaritans vs. predatory peddlers: Problematizing the war on overdose in the United States, Journal of Crime and Justice - August 10, 2016
'There's nothing here': Deindustrialization as risk environment for overdose, International Journal of Drug Policy - March, 2016
From responsible users to recalcitrant dope fiends: mapping modes of engagement with harm reduction, Addiction Research & Theory - April 23, 2015
Needle exchange and the geography of survival in the South Bronx - July, 2014
A re-examination of connectivity trends via exponential random graph modeling in two IDU risk networks., Substance Use & Misuse - December, 2013
Collaborators: Kirk Dombrowski, Author; Bilal Khan, Secondary Author; Ric Curtis, Co-Author; Travis Wendel, Co-Author; Evan Misshula, Co-Author; Samuel Friedman, Co-Author
Kinship, family, and exchange in a Labrador Inuit community, Arctic Anthropology - October, 2013
Collaborators: Kirk Dombrowski, Author; Bilal Khan, Co-Author; Emily Channell, Co-Author; Evan Misshula, Co-Author
Reducing risk, producing order: The surprisingly disciplinary world of needle exchange., Contemporary Drug Problems - October, 2013
Network firewall dynamics and the sub-saturation stabilization of HIV, Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society - March, 2013
Collaborators: Bilal Khan, Author; Kirk Dombrowski, Co-Author; Mohammed Saad, Co-Author; Samuel Friedman, Co-Author
Estimating the size of the methamphetamine-using population in New York City using network sampling techniques., Advances in Applied Sociology - December, 2012
Collaborators: Kirk Dombrowski, Co-Author; Bilal Khan, Co-Author; Travis Wendel, Co-Author; Evan Misshula, Co-Author; Ric Curtis, Co-Author
Needle exchange and the geography of survival in the South Bronx, International Journal of Drug Policy - July, 2012
The biopolitics of needle exchange in the United States, Critical Public Health - January, 2011
Education
B.A. in Biology, Columbia University
M.S. in Public Health, Harvard University
Ph.D. in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center
Papers and Presentations
August 29, 2025
Oral Presentations
“Sometimes it’s the client that someone has a PFA on”: Race, and racialized boundaries, in the care of women with co-occurring opioid use and intimate partner violence
Contemporary Drug Problems Conference
Manchester, England, United Kingdown
This presentation explores how providers who serve women with IPV/OUD indirectly talk about race, and its relationship to violence and substance use.
July 10, 2025
Oral Presentations
“I feel that I learned more about the truth”: Integrating VR/AR headsets into criminal justice and cybersecurity classrooms
International Conference on Learning
Granada, Spain
June 6, 2025
Oral Presentations
“Words have power”: The perception of language around substance use by individuals with lived experience
Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting
Prince Edward Island, Canada
This presentation draws on a mixed methods study of how language around substance use is perceived as stigmatizing or non-stigmatizing.
September 17, 2024
Oral Presentations
Medical-legal partnerships for opioid use and intimate partner violence (OUD-IPV): An integrated approach to interconnected crises
Advancing Justice Through Science
Pittsburgh, PA
April 5, 2024
Oral Presentations
I feel that I learned more about the truth': Integrating VR/AR headsets into the criminal justice classroom
Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators 2024 Conference
Altoona, PA, USA
This presentation reflected on the logistics and impact of integating virtual reality headsets into criminal justice courses.
March 23, 2024
Oral Presentations
“Society should empathize to a point”: Provider-based stigma and perceived barriers to care for PWUO
Academy for Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Conference
Chicago, IL, USA
February 28, 2024
Oral Presentations
Learning to choose, choosing to learn: The TLS Voice and Choice Project at Penn State
SoTL Commons Conference
Savannah, Georgia
November 16, 2023
Oral Presentations
“They are notoriously not very honest”: Provider-Based Stigma and the Challenge of Holistic Care for Women Experiencing IPV and OUD
American Society of Criminology Annual Conference
Philadelphia, PA, USA
June 10, 2023
Oral Presentations
A qualitative study of medical and nonmedical opioid use among college student-athletes in the United States
Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference
Trento, Italy
March 16, 2023
Oral Presentations
“There's no safe place”: Medical-legal partnerships for opioid use disorder and intimate partner violence
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting
National Harbor, MD
March 16, 2023
Posters
Assessment of correctional center educational needs to promote treatment with medications for opioid use disorder
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting
National Harbor, MD
August 17, 2022
Oral Presentations
Grading for change: Alternative methods of assessment in STEM and social science
All-Campus Day
McKeesport, PA
May 19, 2022
Oral Presentations
The engagement academy — Exploring issues together and taking engagement to the next level
SEN Annual Meeting
Virtual
April 1, 2022
Oral Presentations
Generating multi-local, multi-generational interdisciplinary research laboratories for undergraduates in criminology and criminal justice
North Central Sociology Association Annual Meeting
November 17, 2021
Oral Presentations
The “guns on campus” study: Incorporating lower-Level students in high-level research
American Society for Criminology Annual Conference
Chicago, IL, USA
November 17, 2021
Oral Presentations
“I think I could get better at this”: Undergraduates’ experiences within a course-based research experience
American Society for Criminology Annual Conference
Chicago, IL, USA
November 16, 2021
Oral Presentations
Addressing overdose amidst alienation: The McKeesport overdose prevention education project
American Society for Criminology Annual Conference
Chicago, IL, USA
November 16, 2021
Roundtable
Applying undergraduate research activity (URA) in criminal justice courses
American Society for Criminology Annual Conference
Chicago, IL, USA
September 20, 2021
Oral Presentations
Engagement scholarship consortium
Engagement Scholarship Consortium
Virtual
June 7, 2021
Oral Presentations
Addressing the intersection of overdose, crime, and community decay: A mixed-methods evaluation of the McKeesport overdose prevention project
Ethnography and Qualitative Research International Conference
March 26, 2021
Oral Presentations
Using multi-campus course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in criminal justice courses: Application and analysis
Pennsylvania Criminal Justice Educators Annual Conference
Virtual
October 11, 2019
Oral Presentations
Are young athletes at higher risk of opioid misuse?: Domestic and international perspectives
Knowledge Exchange on Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs and Polydrug Use
Glasgow, Scotland
This presentation will explore this discrepancy between scholarly and popular accounts of the U.S. opioid crisis, by both critically reviewing the existing literature on athletic participation as a risk factor for opioid initiation, misuse, and overdose, and further considering the author’s own datasets on opioid use in a region hosting one of the highest rates of fatal overdose nationwide.
May 24, 2019
Oral Presentations
“Pushed in the same way”: Exploring the role of cocaine in heroin initiation, continuation, and desistance.
International Society for the Study of Drug Policy Conference
Paris, France
Paper explores the role of cocaine in heroin initiation among individuals in the current "heroin generation"
November 15, 2018
Oral Presentations
Selling ‘scripts and cutting strips: Motives and methods for buprenorphine diversion in Pennsylvania
American Society for Criminology Annual meeting
Drawing on in-depth interviews with individuals who sell, share, or consume non-prescribed buprenorphine, this study describes respondents’ motivations for and methods of diversion in Allegheny and Dauphin Counties,
September 14, 2018
Oral Presentations
Inadequate and unacceptable: Buprenorphine diversion and the foreseeable failure of drug treatment policy in the United States
British Sociological Association, Medical Sociology Annual Conference
Glasgow, Scotland
Reflecting on Attewell and Gerstein’s (1979) classic piece on the foreseeable failure of federal policies that neglect local realities, this paper will suggest that buprenorphine diversion is a predictable response to policies that make substitution therapy unavailable and unacceptable to potential “clients.”
November 17, 2017
Oral Presentations
The metastasizing war on drugs in the United States
American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting
Philadelphia, PA
While a rising chorus of scholars, activists, and officials decries the failure of the “war on drugs”, this paper systematically reviews the ways in which such “war” is metastasizing into previously untapped territories, recruiting new combatants and infiltrating unlikely institutions.
November 19, 2016
Oral Presentations
From "junkies" to "soccer moms": Newspaper representations of overdose, 1988 - 2014
American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting
New Orleans, LA
This paper considers how the media representation of drug overdose has changed alongside the demographics of drug users.
July 27, 2016
Oral Presentations
Deindustrialization as a risk environment for overdose
Health Links weekly seminar
Pittsburgh, PA
May 17, 2016
Oral Presentations
Problematizing the US war on overdose
International Society for the Study of Drug Policy Conference
Sydney, Australia
This presentation discussed the increasing prosecution of individuals who supply drugs leading to an overdose, and its interference with public health efforts to reduce overdose fatalities.
September 18, 2015
Oral Presentations
'There's nothing here': Deindustrialization as risk environment for overdose
Contemporary Drug Problems Conference
Lisbon, Portugal
Presentation of data from 2015 research project "Contextualizing Opioid Overdose in Allegheny County"
August 23, 2015
Oral Presentations
Deindustrialization, drugs, and (sub)urban decay: Contextualizing opioid overdose outside of Pittsburgh, PA
Chicago, Illinois
Presentation on ongoing research into the social and spatial context of accidental drug overdose in Allegheny County
August, 2013
Oral Presentations
From responsible users to recalcitrant dope fiends: The performance of risk identity in harm reduction
Contemporary Drug Problems Conference
Aarhus, Denmark
This paper consider how drug-using individuals enact an identity based up risk reduction in everyday life.
August, 2012
Oral Presentations
The surprisingly disciplinary world of needle exchange
Denver, CO
This paper considers how needle exchange functions as a disciplinary institution, as theorized by Michel Foucault.
March, 2012
Oral Presentations
Re-examination of connectivity trends via exponential random graph modeling in two IDU risk networks
Sunbelt Social Networks Conference
Redondo Beach, CA
This paper uses exponential random graph modeling techniques to identify the salient topological features of two large networks of injecting drug users.
October, 2011
Oral Presentations
“This is not a political agenda”: How contemporary harm reduction may silence the social
Contemporary Drug Problems Conference
Prato, Italy
This paper considers the history of harm reduction in the United States, from a radical social movement to an established public health paradigm.
April, 2011
Oral Presentations
Needle exchange and the geography of survival in the South Bronx
American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting
Seattle, WA
This papers considers needle exchange as an institution of vital nutritional, economic, social, and medical support for injection drug users.
April, 2011
Oral Presentations
Rethinking “evidence”: Social science and the demedicalization of harm reduction
International Harm Reduction Conference
Beirut, Lebanon
This paper considers how the transformation of harm reduction into an evidence-based public health paradigm has limited its political potential.