Dr. Rachel Lovell and Levin College's Criminology Research Center were recently highlighted in  "Baltimore County reports one set of sexual assault data to the FBI. They tell the public another story”, an investigation published by the Baltimore Banner. The report points to the misreporting of investigated rape cases in Baltimore County, uncovering that Baltimore County's police data excluded more than half of the total investigated rape cases in the area. Only forcible rape cases were reported despite there being multiple classifications of rape crimes.  

Dr.  Lovell was quoted as saying she had "never heard of parceling out the criminal code for rape. To do so diminishes the seriousness of the crime and says to survivors, ‘We don't consider what happened to you rape.' By doing so, she said, "You're in a sense erasing those victims.” 

Dr. Lovell is an Assistant Professor of Criminology in the Department of Criminology and Sociology and Director of the Criminology Research Center at Cleveland State University. She is an applied criminologist and methodologist whose research focuses on gender-based violence and victimization, particularly sexual assault, human trafficking, and intimate partner violence.  

Under the direction of Dr. Lovell, Levin's Criminology Research Center partnered with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office to oversee its research support, making it a  national leader in identifying and prosecuting cold-case rape offenders. 

Dr. Lovell  recently released a book,  Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape, which is the first to address the most critical topics related to untested sexual assault kits and the Department of Justice's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, bringing together leading US scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and survivors.