Amy Andrea Martinez

Amy Andrea Martinez is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), affiliated with the College of Letters and Science. Her research focuses on decolonial perspectives addressing Mexican/Chicano gang culture, mass incarceration, and U.S. settler colonialism, alongside police abolition and lethal force analysis.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY), John Jay College
• B.A. in Sociology (emphasis on Crime, Law, and Deviance), UCSB

Research Interests: Dr. Martinez’s work integrates first-generation, working-class, and system-impacted Xicana perspectives, centering marginalized communities. Her qualitative research methods emphasize Indigenous and Third World frameworks. She critiques carceral systems through studies of gang dynamics, family networks, and state violence.

Teaching: Courses include the Sociology of Deviant Behavior and Crime & Delinquency. Office hours are held at Caje, a campus coffee shop.