Roberto Rivera is a Ph.D. Candidate from the University of California, Riverside. He is researching racialized governmental structures as it intersects the variables of trust in communities of color. He is additionally interested in the advancement of Restorative Justice practices through his “Holistic policing methods”.
Roberto is the 2018-2019 U.S. Fulbright Scholar award recipient in Criminology for Jamaica (See article below) and a 2020 Golden Key International Honor’s Society Scholar. He has presented in 5 countries and is currently working on a book that profiles his experiences in Jamaica as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (2023) and the 2nd book on his Ph.D. dissertation (2023).
Roberto’s critical criminological scholarship is unique as it comes from his work as a police officer of 20 years. In 2008, as an officer, he national presented and was recognized at the U.S. Department of Justice CCDO annual conference in Detroit Michigan for his Adelante Project initiative. Furthermore, his M.A. thesis has been picked up by Routledge Taylor and Francis as a chapter in Gringo Injustice, edited by his Ph.D. chair, Alfredo Mirande. He is profiled by the American Bar Association and Esquire Kim Wright in Lawyers as Changemakers: The Global Integrative Law Movement; Bobby’s Story (2016) as making “positive contributions in policing”. He was one of two non-attorneys that was nationally profiled.
Additionally, due to Roberto’s interest in the Sociology of Disasters and the impacts of Climate Change, he has served in numerous high-level disaster relief efforts. As a volunteer he has responded to disasters in the U.S. and in the Caribbean, including Hurricane Maria (2017); Hurricane Harvey (2017); Hurricane Florence (2018); Camp Fire in Paradise California (2018); Puerto Rico Earthquakes (2020); Colorado Wildfire (2020); recent wildfires in Northern California (2020 & 2021), and many more other disasters. In his free time, he is developing a nonprofit, Earth at Peace, whose aim is education on Climate Change, the tipping point, and planting trees globally through a global network of educators, university students, and key community stakeholders.
He is available for public speaking and his Curriculum Vitae (CV) is available upon request.
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2018/11/01/former-cop-wants-build-trust-between-communities-and-police
Areas of Specialization: Critical Race Theory, Race & Inequality, Restorative Justice Practice, Socio-Legal Studies, Qualitative Research, Ethnography, Sociology of Disasters, Crime & Climate Change, and Indigenous Cultures.
Contact information: rrive011@ucr.edu