Nicole Johnson

Nicole Johnson is a research criminologist at RTI. She currently serves as Research Co-Lead on an Arnold Ventures–funded multisite randomized controlled trial evaluating Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu–inspired training for law enforcement and its impact on use of force and related outcomes.

Nicole's work applies quantitative methods to examine community violence and policing, with a focus on gun violence, drug markets, and police investigations. She has extensive experience working with diverse data sources, including geospatial data, large administrative datasets such as the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and open-source data. Dr. Johnson is particularly skilled in translating complex research into actionable insights for practitioners.

Before joining RTI in 2022, Dr. Johnson was a graduate research assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. Her dissertation research on neighborhood drug markets and shootings was sponsored by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research