Education
- Certificate, Forensic Accounting, New York University
- PhD, CUNY Graduate Center (Criminal Justice)
- MPhil, CUNY Graduate Center (Criminal Justice)
- MA, John Jay College (Criminal Justice)
- BA, Cum Laude, Ramapo College of New Jersey (Law & Society)
- AS, Morris County College (Criminal Justice)
Bio
Chelsea Binns is a professor in the Department of Security, Fire & Emergency Management. Chelsea is a fraud expert, with a PhD in Criminal Justice and a Private Investigator license in NY State. She was named named a "top PI" in 2022 by PI Magazine. She also holds the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credential.
Her research interests are focused on fraud and related corporate security & investigations matters, including background checks, corporate crime, cybercrime, employee crime, financial crime, fraud hotlines, investigative techniques, organizational fraud and white collar crime.
She has extensive experience in these areas, having previously worked in an investigative capacity for prestigious organizations such as Citibank, Morgan Stanley, New York City’s Department of Investigation (DOI) and the New York State Office of the Attorney General.
Chelsea is a highly sought-after expert in the industry. She has appeared on CBS Channel 2 News in NYC and on Fox 5 News in a segment that aired nationally. Additional media organizations where her work has been featured and/or she has provided expert assistance and commentary, include: Asheville Watchdog, Bloomberg News, Buzz Feed News, DocumentedNY, Forbes, Metro NY, NBC News MACH, Orchard Park Sun, Oxygen/Crime TV, The Daily News, The Washington Times, The New York Times, USA Today and the The Wall Street Journal.
She has published four books to date: The Art of Investigation Revisited: Practical Tips from the Experts, CRC Press (in press, anticipated June 2023), The Art of Investigation, CRC Press (2020), Safety & Security in Hotels and Home Sharing, Springer (2020) and Fraud Hotlines: Design, Performance & Assessment, CRC Press (2017). Her work also appears in peer-reviewed journals, such as Security Journal.
She frequently lectures before elite audiences to include major industry groups, governmental organizations and investigative teams. The ACFE Rhode Island chapter named Chelsea their speaker of the year in 2020. Chelsea has also performed several commissioned studies to date. Her most recent study, funded by the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS), was "Using Social Media to Gather Security Intelligence."
JJC Affiliations
Professional Memberships
- Director, Center for Private Security & Safety, John Jay College
- Member, Investigations Steering Committee, American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS)
- Past Chair, Chapter Leader's Committee, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
- Past President, New York Chapter, ACFE
- Past Member, Higher Education Advisory Committee, ACFE
- Member, ACFE Advisory Council
- Member, Advisory Board, Salameno School of Humanities and Global Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey
- Member, ALDONYS
- Member, American Society of Criminology
- Member, Asian Criminological Society
- Member, ASIS
- Member, FBI Infraguard
- Member, Society of Professional Investigators (SPI)
- Member, World Association of Detectives (WAD)
Course Taught
- Business Continuity Planning, PMT 762/SEC 762
- Cybercrime Investigations SEC 217
- Cyber Fraud and Identity Theft, SEC 317
- Private Security Trends & Movements, SEC 320
- Safety & Security of Financial Institutions, SEC 348
- Seminar in Security Problems, SEC 405
- Theory & Design of Security Systems, SEC 753
Scholarly Work
Books
Binns, C, & Sackman, B. The Art of Investigation Revisited: Practical Tips from the Experts (in press, anticipated June 2023)
Binns, C. & Kempf, R. (Sept. 2020) Safety & Security in Hotels and Home Sharing, Springer, 2020
Peer Reviewed Articles
Binns, C. and Kempf, R. (2020) "Background Checks: The Theories Behind the Process." Security Journal.
Binns, C. (Fall 2017) “Cybercrime Response in the United States and Japan: A Comparative Analysis." Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Annual: Global Perspectives, New York: John Jay Press, Volume 7, pp. 153-174.
Book Chapters
Binns, C. "Energy" The Art of Investigation II, CRC Press (In Press, anticipated April 2023)
Binns, C. “Crime and Security” [Chapter 4] in Theoretical Foundations of Homeland Security: Strategies, Operations & Structures. Taylor and Francis/Routledge, December 2020.
Binns, C. (Jan. 2019) Government Employees Unaware they are Cybercrime Victims [Chapter 1] in Cybersecurity: Current Writings on Threats and Protection. Gonzalez, J. & Kemp, R. (Eds.), Mc Farland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina.
Binns, C. (Jan 2019) Law Enforcement Partnerships Enhance Cybersecurity Investigations [Chapter 47] in Cybersecurity: Current Writings on Threats and Protection. Gonzalez, J. & Kemp, R. (Eds.), Mc Farland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina.
Binns, C. (Sept. 2016) New York Corruption Investigation Trends [Chapter 19] in Corruption and America's Cities: Essays and Case Studies. Gonzalez, J. & Kemp, R. (Eds.), Mc Farland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina.
Binns, C. (Sept. 2016) Vigilence Required for New York Government Employees [Chapter 37] in Corruption and America's Cities: Essays and Case Studies. Gonzalez, J. & Kemp, R. (Eds.), Mc Farland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina.
Professional Contributions
Fraud Intelligence “Mastering the Art of Investigation” 2021
ASIS Foundation "Using Social Media to Gather Security Intelligence." 2021
ACFE Fraud Magazine “Predication or not? Discerning when it is time to begin a fraud examination.” November/December 2020
John Jay College, Fierce Advocate “Can Corporate Hotlines be the Answer to the #MeToo Movement?” 2018
Springer Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management “Fraud Investigations.” 2018
Columbia Law School, Integrity in Brief, “Balancing Integrity with Privacy Interests: Fighting Cyber-Corruption with Background Checks.” 2017
ASIS Security Director, "Homeland Security Cellphone Searches: Effective Investigative Tool or Extreme Invasion of Privacy?” 2017
PA Times “Law Enforcement Partnerships Enhance Cybercrime Investigations.” 2017
ACFE Fraud Magazine “The Future is Now in Higher Education.” 2017
ACFE Fraud Magazine “Money Mule Profiling Can Help Solve, Prevent Crimes” 2015
Citibank Cyber Intelligence Journal “Fraud Hotlines and Cybercrime Prevention in the Financial Industry.” 2014
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Honors and Awards
- Certificate of Recognition, Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, John Jay College, 2018
- H. Craig Collins Award to Distinguished Faculty, St. John’s University, Apr. 2017
- Faculty Recognition Award, St. John’s University, Aug. 2016
- Morgan Stanley Client Service Award, 2009
- Doctoral Program Fellowship, CUNY Graduate Center/John Jay College, 2007
Research Summary
Chelsea's research interests are focused on fraud and related corporate security & investigations matters, including background checks, corporate crime, cybercrime, employee crime, financial crime, fraud hotlines, investigative techniques, organizational fraud and white collar crime.