Paul F. Joyce, Ph.D.
Paul F. Joyce, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Chair | Criminal Justice and Criminology
Paul F. Joyce was a police officer for over thirty-one years, including twenty-eight years with the Boston Police Department, policing street gangs and developing strategies to address youth gang violence. He also served as superintendent overseeing special operations, criminal investigations and training and education.
In 2017, Dr. Joyce earned his Ph.D. in criminology and justice policy from Northeastern University. His dissertation, “Street Gang Membership in Boston: A Life Course Perspective,” focused on 28 former Boston gang members active from the late 1980s through 1990s, examining their life experiences from childhood through adulthood.
Before coming to Salve Regina, Dr. Joyce was the director of the Homeland Security Studies Graduate Program at Endicott College. In his role at Salve, he teaches policing, oversees faculty and directs curriculum development, assessment and evaluation, advising, budget and strategic planning.
Featured Spring 2025
It Started with the Hats
The Life Experience of Boston's Founding Street Gang Members
Paul F. Joyce
Summary: In the late 1980s, the introduction of crack cocaine and easy access to guns led to the emergence of the street gang culture and an explosion of gun violence in Boston. Black and Latino youth were both perpetrators and victims of firearm violence as the city grappled with a staggering number of shootings and homicides. Officers within the Boston Police Department struggled to find new and creative ways to combat the growing violence and neutralize gang influence. Paul Joyce was one of those officers.
Joyce examines the influences that motivated the men toward joining gangs, their gang experiences, and the turning points that shaped their paths later in life, whether leading to desistance from or continued persistence in criminal behavior. He explores their lives from childhood into adulthood, providing a deep analysis of the factors that influenced the entire trajectory of gang members’ lives. By utilizing this life-course approach, Joyce adds to the discourse regarding what influences a gang member’s ability or inability to transition out of criminality and the gang life.
This uniquely candid look at gang membership, humanized by the perspectives of the men who experienced it, provides invaluable insight into the complex interplay of the social, cultural, and personal factors that shape individuals’ life courses. This, in turn, has important implications regarding the types of outside interventions that would be the most effective in making a positive difference in the lives of current and former gang members.
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Published by Southern University Press, 2024.
McKillop Library Main Collection: HV6439.U7 B6756 2024