Andrea Barajas

Andrea Barajas is a submatriculate master's student in the Department of Criminology. Andrea is pursuing an MS in Criminology alongside her BA degrees in Criminology and Sociology. She is currently an Undergraduate Research Assistant with the University of Pennsylvania's Crime and Justice Policy Lab. In 2022, Andrea was one of four students to be selected for the first-ever year-long fellowship with the lab, where she partnered with USAID to evaluate and document civic justice rates and crime rates, evaluating a period of six years and 33 different municipalities. Here, she was able to present her work at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to numerous stakeholders. Andrea has also worked on translating, transcribing and coding interviews regarding risk/needs assessment tools from juvenile justice-focused organizations in Latin America and the Carribean. Andrea's passion lies in restorative and transformative juvenile justice. She actively pursues this through her internship with Philadelphia's inaugural pre-charge, youth-focused restorative justice diversion program, Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP). At YASP, Andrea customizes resources to meet the needs of diverted youth referred by the DAO, facilitating weekly sessions. She also writes letters of court support and advocacy on behalf of the youth and is currently contributing to an internal research report for stakeholders.Her goal is to spread restorative and transformative juvenile justice diversion programs, making them more accessible across the United States.