Dr. Peacock's research interests are broadly focused on enforcement agency policies and practices in relation to police misconduct and corruption. His studies primarily seek to evaluate the impact that an organization’s policies, notably personnel selection and training, have on agency integrity and legitimacy. Dr. Robert Peacock received an M.B.A. in Finance from Ohio University and a B.A. in Public Policy from the University of Michigan prior to completing his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University.
While completing his doctoral degree, Dr. Peacock developed and led the implementation team for the US Department of Justice-funded patrol police department program that selected, trained, and mentored an entirely new patrol department of 18,000 officers in Ukraine. A radical departure from past law enforcement in the country, the new service-oriented patrol departments quadrupled the number of female officers and tripled indicators for trust in the 31 cities in which they operate. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Dr. Peacock served eleven years working in grey arms and UN sanctions enforcement in the US Department of State and as Program Manager in the former Soviet Union for the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Peacock is fluent in Russian and has an intermediate level in the Ukrainian language.