Barbara E. Armacost

Barbara Armacost is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. Her primary teaching and research interests are in the areas of criminal procedure, policing and the law, religious liberty, Christianity and law, torts and civil rights litigation. She has written several articles arguing that reforming organizational culture is essential to the effective reform of police departments. Armacost has also proposed that police departments use “sentinel event review” to investigate shootings, uses of force, and other injurious conduct, a method that has been used with good effect by hospitals and airlines to identify, investigate and address the multiple causes of harmful events. Armacost also writes about the intersection between Christian theology and law, including a forthcoming article in the Journal of Law and Religion offering a theology of policing.

Armacost received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she won multiple awards and served as notes editor for the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, Armacost clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Before joining the faculty, she spent two years as an attorney adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Armacost is also a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Prior to attending law school, she spent several years in the nursing profession, where she served in various leadership positions. Armacost’s medical expertise has influenced and illuminated her teaching and scholarship.

Scholarship Profile: Appreciating the Impacts and Limits of Law (Virginia Journal 2005)