Colton L. Daniels

Colton L. Daniels, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at St. Mary’s University, Texas, where he started in 2022. A San Antonio native, he earned his B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. in Applied Demography from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and previously taught at UTSA and Texas Lutheran University.

His research integrates criminology, public health, and sociology of religion, with extensive empirical work on U.S. military HIV cohorts, risk-taking behaviors, mental health, and the protective effects of religiosity. Peer-reviewed output spans Journal of Religion and Health, Social Currents, BMC Public Health, and Open Forum Infectious Diseases, among others.

Research interests include:

• Criminology & criminal psychopathology
• Religion as a social determinant of health and deviance
• Military HIV epidemiology and cardiovascular risk
• Intimate partner violence and self-control
• Sociocultural predictors of risk-taking and protective behaviors

Across more than 20 articles (2019-2025), Daniels' scholarly trend couples large quantitative datasets (e.g., Nashville Stress & Health Study, U.S. Military HIV Natural History Study) with advanced modeling (latent profile, longitudinal cohort, case-control) to illuminate how religion, mental health, and social stratification intersect with crime and health outcomes.

Awards & honors:

• 1st prize, UTSA CLA Research Paper Competition (2019)
• 1st prize, UTSA HCAP Research Paper Competition (2020)
• UTSA Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award (2021)
• UTSA Outstanding Dissertation Award (2022)

Daniels is active in professional service, having delivered multiple conference presentations at ASR and SSSR, and he currently teaches courses in criminology, social stratification, criminal psychopathology, and statistics at St. Mary’s University.