Maria Simonetti, Research Assistant

Maria Simonetti, M.A., CFE, is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Law, Police Science & Criminal Justice (LPS) department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She is a second-year doctoral student in the Criminal Justice PhD program at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She also serves as Assistant to the Director at the Center for International Human Rights.

Maria earned her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Magna Cum Laude at Farmingdale State College, State University of New York. She holds a Master of Arts in International Crime and Justice and an Advanced Certificate in Transnational Organized Crime in 2023. Maria was also a fellow in the United Nations Institution on Training and Research Global Diplomacy Initiative.

Her areas of research include corrections, community reentry, alternatives to incarceration, corrections training, and comparative prison systems. Maria is a Certified Fraud Examiner with an extensive background in fraud prevention, audit, and compliance, which informs her work on institutional accountability, oversight, and policy implementation within correctional systems.