Social Work Commons^™

How Racial Trauma Manifests In Black Women From Direct And Indirect Encounters With Police Brutality, Ashley Turner

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This phenomenological study explored Black women’s lived experiences with racial trauma stemming from direct and indirect encounters with police brutality. A total of nine participants living in Washington state participated in this study. They identified as Black, ciswomen, fluent in English, and at least 21-years-old. In-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted to explore participants’ experiences with police. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results consisted of the following five themes: (a) forms of police encounters, (b) influence of identity, (c) perceived reason for police brutality, (d) emotions stemming from police brutality, and (e) tactics to survive police interactions. …

Covid-19 Behind Bars In The Mountain West, Dielle T. Telada, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

Due to overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, systemic neglect, and violence in U.S. carceral (i.e. jails or prisons) and immigration detention centers, these facilities are a hot spot for the spread of COVID-19. In March 2020, the UCLA Law “Covid Behind Bars Data Project” began tracking official agency websites for self-reported data of COVID-19 across prisons, jails, and other detention facilities in the U.S. The number of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and tests performed from 50 state correctional agencies, the District of Columbia’s Department of Corrections, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and several county jail systems …

A Descriptive Study: Perceptions Of Family Court Judges And Attorneys Regarding Parents Involved With Child Welfare Services As A Result Of Substance Misuse And/Or Mental Health Issues, Nathan Terrell

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For three consecutive years, Kentucky has dealt with the worst rates of child maltreatment in the United States. Kentucky has implemented numerous measures to address this crisis. While many research efforts have focused on perceptions of children involved with child welfare services, there are few efforts researching the perception of judges and lawyers about parents involved with family court services.

This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore the perceptions of Kentucky Family Court Judges and family law attorneys about parental involvement with child welfare services as a result of substance misuse and/or mental health issues. The qualitative component of …

Front End Justice: Diverting People Affected By Mental Illness From The Criminal Justice System, Ariel Esqueda, Kelliann Kutschke, Matthew Miller, Kayleigh Wendland

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Many of the people caught up in the criminal justice system are non-violent offenders struggling with mental illness, which cannot and should not be addressed through incarceration. Our jails and prisons are ill-equipped to provide effective mental health services. Incarceration compounds the problem by contributing to increased psychological distress. We are relying on the criminal justice system to respond to mental illness, rather than investing fully in the spectrum of mental health care from prevention to recovery. Minnesota must invest in diverting people affected by mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community-based treatment, services, and supports …

Criminal Mental Health, Tabitha Oliver

Senior Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to assess and address the prevalence of mental health issues among incarcerated individuals in America. There are multiple internal and external contributing factors to the disproportionately high numbers of mentally ill inmates. Comparing the United States prison system with other countries such as Norway allows for possible paths to improving the mental health crisis that we are currently experiencing. This thesis looks at the principles and practices used in Norway's prisons as well as how they affect inmate's mental health. By comparing Norway's prison policies and design, this thesis will suggest changes in staff …

From Incarceration To Community: Criminal Justice Reform For People Affected By Mental Illness In Minnesota, Nancy Altmann, Paige Myrick

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Minnesota needs a new pathway approach in supporting people affected by mental illness. It is time we stop the practice of criminalizing mental illness, reform the probation and supervision systems, expand Medicaid and MinnesotaCare access, and fully invest in supports for people reintegrating back to their families and communities. Let’s take the millions of dollars spent annually on incarceration and invest in supportive services for people affected by mental illness. This approach invests in the health, hope, safety, and justice for all Minnesotans.

Breaking The Cycle: Interrupting Generational Incarceration In Maine, Jillian Foley Mppm, Erica King Msw, Casey Benner

Justice Policy

Parental incarceration is a known Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) which affects a large number of children nationwide. Research shows that children who experience parental incarceration are more at risk for trauma, mental health problems, and juvenile justice system involvement. The goal of this report was to further our understanding of the scale of parental incarceration and the impact on the children in Maine. This report provides a snapshot of the number of children who were impacted by parental incarceration in the state system over a 5-year period (2015-2020). The findings show that for the majority of these parents, there is …

The Identity Formation Process Of Immigrant Children: A Case Study Synthesis, Jose Carbajal

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Children who immigrate often have difficulties in adjusting to their host country. A single case study based on similar narratives is composed to develop the character of a child’s developmental cultural issues as he immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. Attachment theory is reviewed to discuss how detachment and re-attachment affected him. A review of the literature on assimilation and acculturation is also provided. Objectives: The author synthesizes the work experience with the population with migration history to illustrate how attachment and loss impact these individuals, through a composed case study illustrated through the experience of Ramni, …

Supported Families Grow Healthy Children: Branching Out Services To Support Children, Families, And Communities Impacted By Punitive Practices In The Criminal Justice System, Patrick Clark, Janet Meegan, Troy Potter, Holly Schmitt, Jesse Valentin

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

The well-being of Minnesota’s children and families is negatively impacted by punitive practices. Investing in programs that divert parents from the criminal justice system ensures parental accountability while contributing to healthy children, families, and communities.

Equity And Justice For People With Traumatic Brain Injury In Minnesota's Criminal Justice System: Achieving Effectiveness, Efficiency And Equity, Megan Bryant, Donica Doran, Karen Lacroix, Beth Winterfeldt

Master of Social Work Student Policy Advocacy Briefs

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a silent epidemic in Minnesota’s correctional system. People with TBI in corrections have significant needs related to their TBI that are not being met. These unmet needs threaten their personal safety and the safety of others in correctional settings and society at large; and threaten their ability to maintain their status as productive members of their communities upon release, negatively affecting the well-being of entire communities.

Supports For Migrant Farmworkers: Tensions In (In)Access And (In)Action, Susana Caxaj, Amy Cohen, Sarah Marsden

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Publications

Purpose: This study examined the role of support actors in promoting or hindering access to migrant agricultural workers' (MAWs) needs, and, to determine the factors that influence adequate support for this population.
Methodology: Employing a Situational Analysis methodology, we carried out focus groups and interviews with 35 support actors complimented by a community scan (n=28) with public-facing support persons and a community consultation with migrant agricultural workers (MAWs).
Findings: Two major themes were revealed: (In)access and (In)action, and; Blurred Lines in Service Provision. The first illustrated how support actors could both reinforce or challenge barriers for this population through tensions …

The Impact Of The Cook County State’S Attorney’S Office Deferred Prosecution Program, Christine George, John Orwat, Don Stemen, Jennifer Cossyleon, Whitney Key

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper analyzes the impact of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Deferred Prosecution Program (DPP) on participation outcome patterns and compares recidivism rates between a sample of DPP participants (695) and a comparison group (991) of defendants found guilty through traditional adjudication from February 28, 2011 and December 5, 2012 with recidivism rates through June 6, 2014. Binary logistic and cox proportional regressions were utilized to evaluate the program. No statistically significant difference in re-arrest rates was found for a sample of DPP participants and a comparison group of defendants found guilty through traditional adjudication. However, DPP did have …

Sex Trafficking Of Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Youth In The United States, Meaghan Tomasiewicz

Center for the Human Rights of Children

There is a growing body of research from a variety of disciplines highlighting the overrepresentation of LGBTQ identified individuals among sex trafficked and commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youth. A much smaller subset of this research specifically focuses on transgender female youth. Transgender male, GNC, and intersex youth are largely excluded from the available literature. The issues and obstacles faced by the transgender and GNC communities require specialized services that are not necessarily applicable to the LGBTQ community as a whole due to population-specific healthcare, mental health, and safety factors in addition to employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and familial rejection. By …

Trigger Warnings: From Panic To Data, Francesca Laguardia, Venezia Michalsen, Holly Rider-Milkovich

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Following a practice that originated online, university faculty and staff have increasingly used “trigger warnings” to alert students to the possibility that they might be affected or even harmed by potentially traumatic material. This practice has led to a passionate debate about whether such warnings stifle or encourage student expression and academic freedom, and whether they are beneficial or detrimental to learning. In this article, we illustrate the history and current state of this debate and examine the scientific support for the arguments for and against the use of such warnings. Specifically, we question the scientific basis for the suggestion …

Problem Analysis In Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma As A Driver Of Youth And Gang Violence, Laurie Ross Phd, Samantha Arsenault, Sergeant Miguel Lopez

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers …

Wisconsin School For Girls Inmate Record Books: A Case Study Of Redacted Digitization, Eric Willey, Laura Farley

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

The Wisconsin School for Girls collection housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) archives contains a variety of documents from the institution’s period of operation. Inmates who were admitted to the institution were predominately juvenile females at the time of the records’ creation; because of this, the contents of the records are protected by Wisconsin state statutes, which mandate restricted access for patrons as well as limitations on the use of the information contained within the records. This article examines how the restrictions on the collection continue to protect the privacy of the inmates and their descendants, what procedures WHS …

2015 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar, Emily M. Douglas Ph.D., Melinda Gushwa Ph.D., Licsw, Martha J. Henry Ph.D.

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Mission Critical: Reforming Foster Care and Child Protective Services is the sixth Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar. It is designed to emphasize a family perspective in policymaking on issues related to reforming foster care and child protective services in the Commonwealth. In general, Family Impact Seminars analyze the consequences an issue, policy, or program may have for families.

Delinquency And Crime Prevention: Overview Of Research Comparing Treatment Foster Care And Group Care, Gershon K. Osei, Kevin M. Gorey, Debra M. Hernandez Jozefowicz

Social Work Publications

Background: Evidence of treatment foster care (TFC) and group care’s (GC) potential to prevent delinquency and crime has been developing.

Objectives: We clarified the state of comparative knowledge with a historical overview. Then we explored the hypothesis that smaller, probably better resourced group homes with smaller staff/resident ratios have greater impacts than larger homes with a meta-analytic update.

Methods: Research literatures were searched to 2015. Five systematic reviews were selected that included seven independent studies that compared delinquency or crime outcomes among youths ages 10–18. A similar search augmented by author and bibliographic searches identified six additional studies with an …

A Content Analysis Of Backpage.Com Advertisements In Louisville, Kentucky, Theresa C. Hayden

Faculty Scholarship

Backpage.com and Craigslist are replacing the street corner as a crime source for buying and selling of sex. “To reduce commercial sexual exploitation and enforce existing trafficking laws, communities must first recognize the extent of the problem within their local area (Janson, Mann, Marro, & Matvey, 2013, 99). In a population density study conducted in 15 major U. S. cities, it was found that males over 18 years of age who buy sex online ranged from 0.6% in San Francisco to 21.4% in Houston (Roe-Sepoqitz, Hickle, Gallagher, Smith, & Hedberg, 2013). Researchers in the Greater Cincinnati area found a high …

Not Just Welfare Over Justice: Ethics In Forensic Consultation, Philip J. Candilis, Tess M. S. Neal

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The ethics of forensic professionalism is often couched in terms of competing individual and societal values. Indeed, the welfare of individuals is often secondary to the requirements of society, especially given the public nature of courts of law, forensic hospitals, jails, and prisons. We explore the weaknesses of this dichotomous approach to forensic ethics, offering an analysis of Psychology’s historical narrative especially relevant to the national security and correctional settings. We contend that a richer, more robust ethical analysis is available if practitioners consider the multiple perspectives in the forensic encounter, and acknowledge the multiple influences of personal, professional, and …

Juvenile Delinquency: An Investigation Of Risk Factors And Solutions., Lauren Cardoso

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This article proposes that educational and community based programs can help juveniles stay away from crime and prevent recidivism. A presentation of federal and state statistics, along with an analysis of the risk factors for delinquency, will be provided in order to illustrate the important areas that should be addressed in successful programs. Testimonies, including personal interviews with those who have experience working at the RI Training School, DCYF, Boys' Town, Child and Family Services will be shared as evidence of the research found. Finally, recommendations based on the findings will be proposed.

Perceived Job Readiness Among The Previously Incarcerated, Amy Audet

Honors Projects

This study aims to determine the primary factor in employment readiness for previously incarcerated individuals. Ex offenders were were surveyed for job readiness using a scale developed in the studies' literature review. This scale emcompasses factors such as skills, knowledge, confidence and goals. Surveys were also done according to age, age of first incarceration, incarceration history and job training history. Because this population is marginalized, this study may bring new awareness about the effects of employer discrimination and the need for future programs to increase job readiness among the previously incarcerated individuals.

Criminal Offending Among Respondents To Protective Orders: Crime Types And Patterns That Predict Victim Risk, Carol E. Jordan, Adam J. Pritchard, Danielle Duckett, Richard Charnigo

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Research has shown that respondents to protective orders have robust criminal histories and that criminal offending behavior often follows issuance of a protective order. Nonetheless, the specific nature of the association between protective orders and criminal offending remains unclear. This study uses two classes of statistical models to more clearly delineate that relationship. The models reveal factors and characteristics that appear to be associated with offending and protective order issuance and provide indications about when a victim is most at risk and when the justice system should be most ready to provide immediate protection.

Evaluation Of Adult Lucas County Treatment Alternatives To Street Crime, Inc. (Tasc): Outcomes Related To Program Completion, Melissa W. Burek, Christine M. Englebrecht

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The central purpose of this research was to evaluate the Lucas County, Ohio Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC) program for adult clients. The principal investigator was Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Melissa W. Burek, Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in conjunction with Stacey Rychener, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Evaluation Services and associates at BGSU. Co-author of the report that follows was Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Christine Englebrecht, Ph.D., also of BGSU. Data collection for the project began in January 2009 and completed in late March of same year.

We had three general objectives for …

Disparate Juvenile Court Outcomes For Disabled Delinquent Youth: A Social Work Call To Action, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

Current service delivery for at-risk youth is through four separate systems: special education; mental health and substance abuse; juvenile justice; and child welfare. Many youth (and their families) are involved with more than one of these systems, making early disability identification and subsequent systems coordination paramount in leading to more successful juvenile court outcomes. This coordination is an important and prioritized public policy concern because a majority of youth (disproportionately minority) within juvenile justice populations has been identified with mental health disorders, special education disabilities, or maltreatment histories. This study of a unique sample of probation-supervised delinquent youths ( n …

Advancing The Study Of Violence Against Women: Evolving Research Agendas Into Science, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Decades of research produced by multiple disciplines has documented withering rates of violence against women in the United States and around the globe. To further an understanding of gendered violence, a field of research has developed, but recent critiques have highlighted weaknesses that inhibit a full scientific exploration of these crimes and their impacts. This review extends beyond prior reviews to explore the field’s unique challenges, its community of scientists, and the state of its written knowledge. The review argues for moving beyond “research agendas” and proposes creation of a transdisciplinary science for the field of study of violence against …

Advancing The Study Of Violence Against Women: Response To Commentaries And Next Steps, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.

How To Make After School Programs Work: A Study Of Successful After School Programs In Five States, Caitlin Laboissonniere

Honors Projects

Explores the factors that make a high school after school program successful. Eight programs from five states participated by completing a voluntary survey. Half of the programs are categorized as being a success, with results indicating that the types of activities offered to teens is the most important aspect in ensuring a successful after school program.

The Denial Of Emergency Protection: Factors Associated With Court Decision Making, Carol E. Jordan, Adam J. Pritchard, Pamela Wilcox, Danielle Duckett-Pritchard

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Despite the importance of civil orders of protection as a legal resource for victims of intimate partner violence, research is limited in this area, and most studies focus on the process following a court’s initial issuance of an emergency order. The purpose of this study is to address a major gap in the literature by examining cases where victims of intimate partner violence are denied access to temporary orders of protection. The study sample included a review of 2,205 petitions that had been denied by a Kentucky court during the 2003 fiscal year. The study offers important insights into the …

Which Sexual Abuse Victims Receive A Forensic Medical Examination? : The Impact Of Children's Advocacy Centers, Wendy A. Walsh, Theodore P. Cross, Lisa M. Jones, Monique Simone, David Kolko

Sociology

Abstract

Objective

This study examines the impact of Children's Advocacy Centers (CAC) and other factors, such as the child's age, alleged penetration, and injury on the use of forensic medical examinations as part of the response to reported child sexual abuse.

Methods

This analysis is part of a quasi-experimental study, the Multi-Site Evaluation of Children's Advocacy Centers, which evaluated four CACs relative to within-state non-CAC comparison communities. Case abstractors collected data on forensic medical exams in 1,220 child sexual abuse cases through review of case records.

Results

Suspected sexual abuse victims at CACs were two times more likely to have …