Welcome!
I’m Romy Zingraff, a PhD student in Criminal Justice at Texas State University (Eat ’Em Up, Cats!).
My research examines missing persons in the United States, women in the criminal justice system, and policy evaluations, with a focus on bridging academic scholarship and real-world justice issues.
Beyond research, I am deeply committed to teaching and mentoring the next generation of scholars.
Through this website, I share accessible insights, practical resources, and student-friendly tools, designed to support university life both inside and outside the classroom.
Why I Chose Criminal Justice
I grew up in France with a slightly unusual dream: I just wanted to speak English in my everyday life. I also felt strangely drawn to the U.S. university system, which (to my very neuro-atypical brain) seemed a lot more flexible and curiosity-friendly.
After high school, I briefly followed in Annalise Keating’s footsteps (where are my How to Get Away With Murder people?) and joined law school… for about a minute and a half. I quickly realized it wasn’t for me.
So I pivoted into an undergraduate degree in English and Russian, which eventually gave me the opportunity to spend my final year studying at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Since my only real requirement was that my classes had to be taught in English (duh), I was able to explore across disciplines — and that’s when I took my first criminal justice courses.
It felt like I had accidentally stumbled into my professional path.
I moved back home for a year and began an academic research master’s degree focused on sexual violence in Native American communities. That experience led me back to Louisiana for a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice, where I continued working on related questions.
My incredible master’s supervisor is an expert in missing persons, and through working with her, I realized two things: missingness was not only an under-studied and deeply important area of research — it was also something I had more personal connection to than I initially understood.
And that’s ultimately how criminal justice became not just a field of study for me, but a long-term commitment.
Key Achievements
Throughout my academic and professional journey, I have had the privilege of:
- Publishing research on female police officers’ exposure to suspect resistance, disparities in media coverage of missing persons, incarcerated individuals, and the sexual victimization of Native American women.
- Teaching undergraduate courses at Texas State University, where I support students in critically engaging with the complexities of the criminal justice system.
- Receiving an R-1 scholarship in recognition of Texas State University’s ongoing progress toward R1 research status.
- Organizing and moderating a debate on gender equality at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
- Developing student-centered academic resources and templates, such as structured reading notes and dissertation planning tools, to make research and university life more manageable.
- Building an original dissertation research agenda using large-scale missing persons data and mixed-method approaches that combine quantitative modeling with qualitative analysis of media and investigative narratives.
- Creating this website as a public-facing platform for accessible knowledge translation, bridging academic research and real-world justice concerns.
These experiences continue to shape my commitment to research, teaching, and advocacy within criminal justice.
Future Goals
As I continue my PhD at Texas State University, my primary goal is to expand my research on both missing persons and women in the criminal justice system, with particular attention to how vulnerability, institutional response, and inequality shape people’s experiences across these contexts. At the same time, I am excited to keep broadening my research interests over the years and to let curiosity guide new questions, new methods, and new areas of inquiry as my work develops.
Beyond research, I hope to continue supporting students through teaching, mentorship, and practical resources that make academic life more accessible and sustainable. This website is part of that mission, offering reflections, student-friendly tools, and templates designed to help others navigate university life with more structure and less overwhelm.
Looking ahead, I aspire to secure a tenure-track position where I can integrate research, teaching, and advocacy to help shape the next generation of criminal justice scholars and practitioners.