- 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)
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 (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 and The Journal of Applied Security Research.
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."
- Business Continuity Planning, PMT 762/SEC 762
- Cybercrime Investigations SEC 217
- Cyber Fraud and Identity Theft, SEC 317
- Intro. to Cybercrime, SEC 107
- 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
- Vice Chair, Risk Committee, Tokyo American Club
- Member, ACFE Advisory Council
- Member, ALDONYS
- Member, American Society of Criminology
- Member, Asian Criminological Society
- Member, ASIS
- Member, Society of Professional Investigators (SPI)
- Member, World Association of Detectives (WAD)
- Past Director, Center for Private Security & Safety, John Jay College
- Past 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
- Past Member, FBI Infraguard
- Past Member, Advisory Board, Salameno School of Humanities and Global Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Books
Binns, C, & Sackman, B. (2023) The Art of Investigation Revisited: Practical Tips from the Experts, CRC Press
Binns, C. & Kempf, R. (2020) Safety & Security in Hotels and Home Sharing, Springer
Binns, C. & Sackman, B. (2020) The Art of Investigation, CRC Press
Binns, C. (2017) Fraud Hotlines: Design, Performance & Assessment, CRC Press
Peer Reviewed Articles
Binns, C. and Kempf, R. (2025) "Can a company’s poor customer service be a security risk? An examination of Airbnb’s Twitter Data using Artificial Intelligence Supervised Machine Learning" Journal of Applied Security Research.
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" (2023) The Art of Investigation II, CRC Press
Binns, C. “Crime and Security” (2020) [Chapter 4] in Theoretical Foundations of Homeland Security: Strategies, Operations & Structures. Routledge
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.
Editorial Review
Binns, C. & Hatano, R. (2025) "Empowering the next generation of Investigators." WAD Beyond Global (World Association of Detectives)
Binns, C. (2023) “When investigations kill: Lessons learned from the murders of sleuths across the globe.” PI Magazine,
Binns, C. (2021) “Mastering the Art of Investigation” Fraud Intelligence
Binns, C. (2020). [Contributor] “Predication or not? Discerning when it is time to begin a fraud examination.” Fraud Magazine (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)
Binns, C. (2018). “Can Corporate Hotlines be the Answer to the #MeToo Movement?” Fierce Advocate. John Jay College.
Binns, C., & Kempf, R. (2017). “Balancing Integrity with Privacy Interests: Fighting Cyber-Corruption with Background Checks.” Integrity in Brief. Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity, Columbia Law School.
Binns, C. (2017). “Homeland Security Cellphone Searches: Effective Investigative Tool or Extreme Invasion of Privacy?” Security Director (American Society for Industrial Security)
Binns, C. (2017). “Law Enforcement Partnerships Enhance Cybercrime Investigations.” PA Times (American Society for Public Administration).
Binns, C. (2017). [Contributor] Fraud Edge Column. “The Future is Now in Higher Education.” Fraud Magazine (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners).
Binns, C. (2015). “Money Mule Profiling Can Help Solve, Prevent Crimes,” Fraud Magazine (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners).
Binns, C. (2014). “Fraud Hotlines and Cybercrime Prevention in the Financial Industry,” Citibank Cyber Intelligence Journal.
- 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
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.