Courtney Leapley

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Instructor

Email Address: courtney.leapley@ucdenver.edu

Bio

Courtney Leapley is an instructor of Criminal Justice at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs. Courtney earned her BA in Criminal Justice from the University of Colorado Denver, and her MCJ will be conferred in December 2024. She has taught a variety of courses including Corrections, Research Methods, Criminological Theory, and Statistics in Criminal Justice.

Prior to joining SPA, Courtney worked for the Division of Criminal Justice, Office of Research and Statistics where she was involved in various projects including the SB 20-217 Law Enforcement Integrity data collection, Restrictive Housing in Colorado jails, the Crime and Justice in Colorado Report, and others.

Courtney has conducted independent research on Indigenous injustice, the impact of social determinants of health on rates of aggravated assault with a firearm, and restrictive housing. She received a research grant from the Injury and Violence Prevention Center to study aggravated assault with a firearm in Colorado through a health equity lens. The research from this grant has yielded two presentations, as well as a manuscript that is in progress. Her graduate thesis is titled “Uniquely American: An Examination of the Implementation of Colorado’s Extreme Risk Protection Order Law, a Policy Diffusion Application at the County Level” which analyzes the implementation of ERPO laws in Colorado.

Courtney’s current research interests reside primarily in corrections, gun violence, and psychology in criminal justice with a focus on neuroscientific implications, but she also is invested in examining criminal justice policy as a whole. She also focuses on relationships between criminal justice and social determinants of health.