The Routledge International Handbook of Juvenile Homicide (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781032119243)

Kathleen M. Heide is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida (USF). Professor Heide was elected as a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of her contributions in Criminology, particularly in the areas of juvenile homicide and parricide. Dr. Heide is also a licensed mental health professional actively involved in evaluating adolescent homicide offenders and treating survivors of trauma, including police officers. She has served as a court-appointed expert in matters relating to homicide, violence, and family and children. Dr. Heide also has been retained by the state and the defense to evaluate defendants charged with murder in 17 states and Canada.

Professor Heide has authored or co-authored approximately 150 professional publications, including four monographs. Her book, Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide, was the first scholarly book on the subject and is considered a seminal publication. Dr. Heide is also the author of two other books on homicide: Young Killers: The Challenge of Juvenile Homicide and Understanding Parricide: When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents. She is the co-author (with Linda Merz-Perez) of Animal Cruelty: Pathway to Violence Against People. Her research has also been featured by major news outlets around the world, and she has served as a consultant to the National Institute of Justice, National Institute of Health, many state agencies, and several law firms.

Dr. Heide has served on 20 community boards or councils and has held two gubernatorial appointments to the Florida Sentencing Commission. She has received many awards from USF for teaching and research excellence and has been recognized for her accomplishments by many community and professional organizations. Dr. Heide was elected to full membership in the American Psychological Association in recognition of her contributions to the field of psychology. Dr. Heide has been invited to lecture on her research findings in several countries. For example, she was invited by Queen Sofia of Spain to present her research on juvenile homicide at the International Meeting on the Biology and Sociology of Violence: Youth Violence (2004). Professor Heide gave the opening plenary address on parricide at a homicide conference sponsored by the Australian government and Griffith university (2014). Dr. Heide recently delivered the opening plenary on juvenile homicide for a psychology and law conference in Taiwan and will be speaking there on juvenile parricide at another conference in Fall 2023.

Kathleen holds a B.A. from Vassar College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University at Albany, State University of New York, School of Criminal Justice, where she received a Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award at commencement and was recognized as a distinguished alumna in 2007.