Center for Victim Research

New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center Research Day
2022-05-20 08:30 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
During this free event on May 20th, we will showcase gun violence research being done by our leadership team, GVRC post-doctoral and doctoral students, community partners, and researchers we have funded this year. This conference is not looking to engage with simply an academic audience. Instead, we’d like this to be a truly community-engaged event, with community members, those involved in violence interruption work, policy makers, journalists, students, educators, the military, and others attending.
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Accounting for our communities: Strategies and solutions for disaggregated AAPI data
2022-05-12 15:00 - 16:30
This event is another in the series, Bridges: A Connect Call for Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders Addressing Gender-Based Violence. The theme for this call is Accounting for our communities: Strategies and solutions for disaggregated AAPI data.
These bi-monthly community connect calls are intended to be a space for AANHPI advocates, community members, and allies to connect, dialogue, share successes, problem solve, and network.
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National Town Hall on Mass Violence & Readiness
2022-05-05 15:00 - 17:00
The National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center’s second National Town Hall on Mass Violence will focus on readiness. Participants will be able to:

Identify the traditional and non-traditional professionals who are involved in responding to MVIs, and their respective roles and responsibilities.
Identify the structures and collaborative strategies needed for effective, survivor-centered MVI readiness and preparation
Describe the importance and core elements of advance planning to strengthen a state’s or community’s readiness to respond to a MVI.

Moderated by Anne Seymour, and hosted by Dr. Alyssa Rheingold of the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center, panelists will include:

Eugenia Pedley (OVC Program Manager)
Amanda Eagan (ICP-TTA, Senior T/TA Specialist)
Michelle Garcia (Director, DC Mayor’s Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants),
Pamela Ferguson-Brey (Director, Hawai’i Crime Victim Compensation Commission) and
Randi U. Barretto (Special Projects Coordinator, Hawai’i Crime Victim Compensation Commission)

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Lessons Learned About Survivor-Centered Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Pediatric Healthcare Providers
2022-04-27 14:00 - 15:00
Futures Without Violence is holding a webinar to share more about the issue brief Lessons Learned About Survivor-Centered Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Recommendations for Pediatric Healthcare Providers. This brief focuses on best practices and innovative strategies that pediatric healthcare providers and pediatricians can implement to form stronger support networks for survivors of violence and abuse that continue to function in emergency conditions.
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Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR): Putting the Approach into Practice
2022-04-27 12:00 - 13:00
From the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention:
Research helps to expand our knowledge base of violence and prevention, and it is needed to create better informed and more effective practices. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a valued approach in public health because of its alignment with health and racial equity, because it centers the voices of the community, and because it is flexible in its approach. The webinar will convey principles of CBPR, the values of the approach, and provide an orientation to different experiences of CBPR and the various ways it can be implemented.
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Space, Power, and Community-level Prevention: the Sexual Assault Prevention and Campus Equity (SPACE) Toolkit
2022-04-26 14:30 - 15:30
SPACE stands for Sexual Assault Prevention And Community Equity. The toolkit provides campuses a new approach to sexual violence prevention – one grounded in a broad commitment to equity. Campuses can use it as part of institutional redesign & sexual assault prevention. Join us for a webinar on April 26th at 2:30EST for an overview.
Toolkit available here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cfe8170aca3540001876100/t/623102c34c35ee72a4ab8da8/1647379140460/SexualCitizensToolkit_2022_Final.pdf

Trauma-Informed Investigations for Sexual Assault Cases
2022-04-26 13:00 - 14:00
This webinar, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, will highlight the importance of conducting a trauma-informed interview of a victim of sexual assault. Trauma-informed investigative interviews provide an opportunity to not only meet investigative objectives and help close cases, but also foster victim healing and engagement with the criminal justice system. Research indicates a sexual assault survivor’s experience and interaction with law enforcement impacts the level of future engagement with the criminal justice system.
The presenter will not only discuss the benefit of a trauma-informed interview, but also techniques for conducting the actual interview and considerations for training associated with understanding trauma as applied to sexual assault victims. These techniques and considerations for engaging survivors of sexual assault from a trauma-informed, victim-centered perspective support recommendations #2 and #22 of the National Institute of Justice’s National Best Practices for Sexual Assault Kits: A Multidisciplinary Approach.
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Promoting Child Maltreatment Prevention and Advancing Equity
2022-04-25 08:30 - 15:30
The UNC School of Social Work invites the public to participate in its inaugural Social Work Legacy Speakers Series: Promoting Child Maltreatment Prevention and Advancing Equity.
The Legacy Speakers Series will bring together individuals committed to strengthening the lives of children and families and addressing challenges and gaps in our current service systems. The goals of the Speakers Series are to create an enduring legacy of security and stability for families and to ensure that our community’s most vulnerable are not harmed by programs or efforts intended to buffer them from the effects of traumatic experiences.
Speakers:
• Leading welfare scholars Phillip Redmond and Tamika Williams of the Duke Endowment.
• Camille Quinn, an assistant professor at The Ohio State University (OSU) and health criminologist who examines the treatment of Black girls in criminal justice systems.
• Susan Yoon, an associate professor at OSU who examines child maltreatment and resilience with a focus on fatherhood/father involvement.
• Kathryn L. Maguire-Jack, a University of Michigan associate professor and one of the nation’s leading experts on child maltreatment.
• Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, an associate professor at OSU and CDC and NIH-funded researcher who examines state and federal policy at the intersection of economics and child maltreatment.
Other invited panel participants include youth and parent leaders, public and private community leaders, and UNC faculty.
To attend this event in person or via Zoom, please register online.

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week
2022-04-24 - 2022-04-30
From the Office for Victims of Crime: Since 1981, National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) has challenged the Nation to confront and remove barriers to achieving justice for all victims of crime. During NCVRW, we celebrate the accomplishments of the victims’ rights movement and reflect on how far we have come.
Every April, OVC leads communities throughout the country in their annual observances of NCVRW.
Save the date for NCVRW 2022, which will be observed April 24–30. The 2022 NCVRW theme is Rights, access, equity for all victims. The theme underscores the importance of helping crime survivors find their justice by—

enforcing victims’ rights,
expanding access to services, and
ensuring equity and inclusion for all.

Facilitación que Transforma: Construyendo Comunidades Virtuales Transformative Facilitation: Building Virtual Communities
2022-04-19 13:00 - 14:30
A muchas organizaciones de violencia doméstica, la pandemia les ha llevado a cambiar la forma en que se ofrecen algunos servicios de apoyo. Es decir, hoy en día muchos servicios de apoyo son ofrecidos virtualmente, adaptándose así a la pandemia y a las restricciones con respecto a encuentros presenciales. Los grupos de apoyo son una parte importante de la intercesión de sobrevivientes de violencia doméstica.
Históricamentes, han sido una forma de cultivar conexiones sociales entre sobrevivientes. El cambio a plataformas virtuales resalta que la facilitación efectiva de grupos de apoyo es fundamental para fomentar participación, apoyo mutuo entre sobrevivientes e incluso procesos de sanidad. Los mismos principios se pueden aplicar a sesiones de escucha, los grupos focales/de discusión y otros grupos en nuestras organizaciones.
Este seminario web conversacional explorará las formas en que el campo debe adaptarse para construir comunidades virtuales efectivas. Afirmamos que crear un ambiente que invite la participación y que sea accesible puede fomentar cercanía aún cuando estemos físicamente separades.
For many domestic violence organizations, the pandemic has led to shifting how advocacy supports are delivered. That is, many supports are now being offered virtually to accommodate the pandemic quarantine and in-person restrictions.
Support groups, a cornerstone of domestic violence advocacy, have historically been one way to cultivate social connectedness for survivors. With the move to virtual platforms, we know that effective facilitation is critical to engagement, peer support, and even healing in a support group space. The same principles can be applied to listening sessions, focus groups and other groups across our organizations.
This conversational webinar will explore build engaging virtual communities. We assert that creating an environment that invites participation and centers access can bring us closer even when we are physically apart.
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Elder Justice Decision-Making Capacity Symposium
2022-04-19 - 2022-04-21
Every day the lives of older adults are profoundly and negatively impacted in both the criminal and civil justice systems based on mistaken assumptions and inadequate assessments of their capacity to make decisions for themselves. In order to raise greater awareness of these issues and improve how elder justice professionals approach these issues, the Department of Justice will be hosting the Elder Justice Decision-Making Capacity Symposium, a three-day virtual conference on April 19-21.
The Symposium will highlight what we know today about the aging brain and its impact on decisionmaking, and discuss the protocols and tools available to assess decision-making capacity. The Symposium will then focus on the myriad of ways that perceptions of an older adult’s decision-making capacity can have profound implications on their treatment in criminal and civil proceedings. These may include elder abuse or fraud prosecutions not being pursued; unnecessary or inappropriate guardianships being imposed; and civil legal remedies being denied to older victims of elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation.
By shedding light on the latest science as well as best clinical, legal and judicial practices, the Symposium aims to increase access to justice while promoting the self-determination of older adults.
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International Conference on Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Reimagining Justice
2022-04-19 - 2022-04-21
From End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI): Our annual conferences focus on sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, human trafficking and elder abuse. We consistently bring together law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, victim advocates, judges, parole and probation officers, rape crisis workers, health care professionals, faith community members, educators, researchers and others in this three-day conference highlighting promising practices and emerging issues to effectively respond to these crimes in all of our communities.
April 19-21, 2022
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Crime Survivor Voices Survey Results and Recommendations
2022-04-04 17:30 - 19:00
The Prosecutors Alliance California Survivor Policy, Training and Resource Center is proud to announce our monthly training series every first Monday February to June 2022. The series was developed in response to the needs and issues areas identified by those working directly with survivors of violence and crime. Victim Advocates, attorney’s and social service provider are encouraged to attend this FREE training series.
Other topics include Collaboration with CBSs to Serve Survivors of Violence and Crime (May 2) and Understanding Elder Abuse and Financial Fraud (June 6).
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Logic Model for Victim Service Programs: The Link Between Program Outcomes and Program Sustainability
2022-03-24 14:00 - 15:00
During this training, participants will learn how the use of a logic model is an essential component of victim services program evaluation and planning. Information and discussion on the relationship between resources, activities, and outcomes will help prepare participants to consider the range and types of program outcomes to track. These outcomes have valuable practical use beyond reporting and can be used to support program communications, fundraising, and grant applications.
“Logic Model for Victim Service Programs: The Link Between Program Outcomes and Program Sustainability” webinar is part of the new Vital Subjects series. This series will address topics that are critical to the victim services field across the country.
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International Symposium on Child Abuse
2022-03-21 - 2022-03-24
The National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC) is excited to bring you the virtual 38th International Symposium on Child Abuse scheduled for March 21-24, 2022. Symposium will continue to provide the state-of-the art training you need to continue to provide services to children and to fight child abuse. We are working to add more workshops and provide an even better digital learning experience than our first virtual conference in 2021!
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Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences: 59th Annual Meeting
2022-03-15 - 2022-03-19
Join us for the ACJS 59th Annual Meeting, March 15 – 19, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. ACJS President Heather Pfeifer is excited to bring you a content rich program focused on “Avenues of Change: Integrating Research, Advocacy, and Education.” She and the 2022 program committee chairs have worked hard to assemble topic areas within the Criminal Justice Sciences that are timely and relevant. Whether you are in academia or a practitioner, there is something for everyone.
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High Prevalence of Elder Abuse during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk and Resilience Factors
2022-03-03 14:00 - 15:00
From the National Adult Protective Services Association and Evidence Change:
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, elder abuse affected one in 10 older adults annually in the U.S. It has been assumed that the pandemic has brought with it a surge in elder abuse due to individuals ordered to stay at home combined with increased interpersonal, social, and financial stressors. However, empirical evidence is lacking. This webinar will present data from the first investigation of self-reported elder abuse victimization in a relatively large and diverse sample of older persons. The presenter will describe elder abuse prevalence and risk and resilience factors for abuse victimization during the ongoing pandemic. The findings will be discussed in relation to practice, policy, and implications for prevention programming.
Click here for the study article.
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Presenter:
E-Shien (Iggy) Chang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow in Behavioral Geriatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine
Dr. E-Shien (Iggy) Chang is a NIH-supported Postdoctoral Fellow in Behavioral Geriatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. Iggy’s research program seeks to investigate and dismantle mechanisms of elder abuse and neglect across diverse cultural, family, and care settings. Her doctoral dissertation work was among the first to systematically examined the role of ageism, operating at both societal and individual levels, in driving elder abuse perpetration. Iggy completed her PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health and her MA in Social Sciences at University of Chicago.

Tamkin Symposium on Elder Abuse
2022-02-24 - 2022-02-25
The mission of the USC Judith D. Tamkin International Symposium on Elder Abuse is to create safe and healthy environments for all elders, here and across the world, by bringing thought leaders, activists, caregivers, researchers, lawmakers, and other stakeholders together to share findings, strategize solutions, and help shape and propel the field of elder abuse and justice.
The theme for 2022 is “Elder Justice: Expanding the Field through Equity, Intersectionality, and Innovation.”
Early Bird Registration Deadline is January 10, 2022.
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Social Reactions to Sexual Assault
2022-02-23 15:00 - 16:00
This webinar, another in the CVR Evidence Hour series, reviews research on correlates and impacts of social reactions made to victims disclosing sexual assault and partner violence. Findings about trauma disclosure and social reactions are presented from survivors and their informal support members (e.g., family, friend, romantic partner). Recommendations from survivors and informal supports about what survivors need and information from a recent intervention to improve social reactions to survivor disclosures are reviewed.
This webinar highlights: “Correlates of Social Reactions to Victims’ Disclosures of Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review” by S. E. Ullman, (2021). Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 15248380211016013. (Contact the Research Librarian for access.)
Presenters:
Dr. Sarah Ullman is Professor of Criminology, Law, & Justice and Affiliate Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a social psychologist whose research concerns the impact of sexual assault on women’s well-being. She has conducted NIH-funded research on risk and protective factors for PTSD and substance abuse and other health-related outcomes in rape victims, social support processes in a dyadic sample of victims and informal social network members, and an intervention to reduce negative social reactions to victims of sexual assault and partner violence.
Kris Bein is the Assistant Director for the Resource Sharing Project, where she provides training and technical assistance to state coalitions and rural rape crisis centers on sexual assault services, agency structure, and capacity building. She holds a master’s degree in Human Services from the University of Illinois.
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Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
2022-02-23 14:00 - 15:00
On February 23, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. e.t., the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center will present an online Expert Q&A discussion with Nicole Matthews and Alicia Nevaquaya on “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.”
Indigenous people across the country have sounded the alarm for years about the disturbing and disproportionate rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the United States. It is only in recent months that the media and public attention began to look at the crisis. This session is an opportunity for advocates and other allies to increase their understanding of the alarming prevalence of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and how, as the Urban Indian Health Institute says, “… institutional practices allow them to disappear not once, but three times—in life, in media, and in the data.”
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Support Over Silence for KIDS
2022-02-10 12:00 - 13:00
Dr. Nancy Weaver will discuss how to apply communication sciences, analytics, and public health principles to promote healthy and positive parenting to reduce the prevalence of childhood abuse and neglect. During this webinar, she’ll discuss Support Over Silence for KIDS, which teaches bystanders the skills for responding to struggles between caregivers and children in public. Dr. Weaver created this program to educate community members about how to listen empathetically and non-judgmentally to parents and caregivers in tense situations to help deescalate what’s happening in the moment.
Nancy L. Weaver, PhD, MPH is a Professor of Behavioral Science at Saint Louis University.  She blends communication science, analytics and public health principles to support institutions in adopting effective public health programs.  Whether encouraging nurturing relationships between parents and kids, or coaching instructors in best practices for connecting with their students online, she advances strength-based messages that are easy to understand and tools that are easy to apply. She launched Support Over Silence for KIDS to provide communities with bystander training to support parents struggling with their children in public. Dr. Weaver is Co-director of the Community Engagement Core of the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment at Washington University and works in partnership with community organizations across the country.
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Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month
2022-02-01 08:00 - 17:00
February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month (TDVAM). This is an issue that impacts everyone – not just teens – but their parents, teachers, friends and communities as well. Together, we can raise the nation’s awareness about teen dating violence and promote safe, healthy relationships.
Check out CVR’s Winter 2021-2022 Spotlight which has a section of research-based resources about teen dating violence.

Assessing the Scope of Missing Native Americans in Nebraska: Results from a State-Wide Study and Recommendations
2022-01-31 15:00 - 16:30
National Indian Country Training Initiative Announcement
The problem of missing persons has gained significant attention, and recent legislation in multiple states has called for studies on the scope of missing Native Americans. This webinar will describe the methodological and practical issues for researchers to consider when examining data on missing persons, and present the issues that make reporting and investigating missing Native persons particularly challenging. Using data from four point-in-time-counts of missing persons in Nebraska in 2020, the presenters will report the prevalence and context of Nebraska’s missing persons and missing Native persons, and describe stability and change across demographic groups over time. The presenters also collected qualitative data from victim service providers regarding ways to support families and loved ones of missing persons.
Results indicate that missing persons cases are dynamic and most cases are resolved quickly. Further, the rate of missing persons and the rank order positions of demographic groups is relatively stable over time. Reported missing persons are disproportionately African American and Native American and are most likely to be minor boys. None of the missing Native cases were associated with a criminal investigation, and more Native missing persons cases were resolved than missing persons cases from other racial groups. Further, there was very little overlap between the state clearinghouse and the national missing persons lists. The presenters will provide specific directions for data collection, legislative priorities, and researcher-practitioner partnerships regarding the study of missing persons generally and missing Native Americans specifically. They will also address the potential role of missing persons advocacy in supporting families and communities. There is no cost for attending this webinar.
This media and materials are for Department of Justice use and subject to protection from release under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. section 552.
The Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) will provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests should be made to the course POC as early as possible, preferably at least three weeks in advance of the training. No nominee will be excluded from a course on the basis of a disability-related accommodations request.

Training Date
January 31, 2022

Training Times (EST)
3:00 – 4:30 p.m. EST

Training Times (CST)
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm CST

Training Times (MST)
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm MST

Training Times (PST)
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm PST

Non-DOJ Registration Deadline: Wednesday, January 26, 2022
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National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center National Town Hall
2022-01-27 15:00 - 16:30
January 27, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET

The National Town Hall hosted by the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center (NMVVRC) will provide timely, basic and evidence-informed information and resources about mass violence readiness, response and resilience/recovery to a national, interdisciplinary audience of survivors, victim/survivor assistance professionals, mental and behavioral health professionals, law enforcement and criminal justice officials, and allied professionals.
Each 90-minute National Town Hall meeting will be held virtually on a quarterly basis, and will feature experts including practitioners, researchers, and professionals who have lived experiences resulting from MVIs. Registered participants can submit questions in advance of each Town Hall, which will be addressed within the Town Hall if time permits, and directly if there are time limitations.
Speakers for this first National Town Hall will be:

Dr. Alyssa Rheingold is Director of the Center’s Preparedness, Response and Recovery Division of the NMVVRC. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor at the National Crime Victim’s Research and Treatment Center (NCVC) within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. The NMVVRC was established in October of 2017 in partnership with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The NMVVRC is located at the Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. The Center is composed of a multi-disciplinary team of scholars, researchers, victim service and mental health professionals, partner organizations, technical experts, and relevant local and national organizations in a multifaceted team that collaborates with OVC.

Eugenia Pedley is a Senior Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, who coordinates OVC’s mass violence initiatives, its related Cooperative Agreements (the AEAP program).

Mary Vail Ware is responsible for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC), the Improving Community Response to Mass Violence Project (ICP TTA), the International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program (ITVERP), and the Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative (VTRI). Mary Vail Ware, OVC TTAC Project Director, has more than 29 years of experience in victim services, including 20 years in mass violence response. She has responded to mass violence incidents including Virginia Tech, 9/11, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Virginia Beach. She is currently assisting Rigby, Idaho. Indianapolis, and Oxford, Michigan. OVC TTAC is the gateway to current training and technical assistance for victim service providers and allied professionals who serve crime victims. We aim to build the capacity of victim assistance organizations across the country to better serve victims of crime. OVC TTAC has a broad range of resources to help victim service providers, first responders, community organizations, and allied professionals build that capacity. We focus on resources that help meet the unique needs of victims, survivors, and communities impacted by incidents of mass violence or terrorism.

Violence Across the Lifecourse: Child Maltreatment, Intimate Partner Violence, and Elder Mistreatment
2022-01-27 14:00 - 15:00
The CVR webinar Evidence Hour series continues with this overview of research on the connections between child maltreatment and later forms of violence that extend to and beyond mid-life. We will discuss the developmental associations between child maltreatment, violence in adolescence, and intimate partner violence (IPV) and elder mistreatment. We will also review the existing, though limited, evidence on the close association between adult IPV and elder mistreatment. We will explain what is known about the persistence of violence in and across family and other interpersonal relationships, noting where gaps in knowledge remain and where research is particularly strong. Throughout the presentation, we will draw on theories to help explain the mechanisms by which early violence exposure leads to later violence victimization and perpetration, as well as factors that mitigate risks and promote resilience in individuals who encounter and are at-risk for violence at different points in the lifecourse.
Related scoping review: “Child Maltreatment, Youth Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Elder Mistreatment: A Review and Theoretical Analysis of Research on Violence Across the Life Course” (2020) in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. (Email the Research Librarian for full-text.)
Presenters:
Todd I. Herrenkohl, Ph.D., is Professor and Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Children and Families at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. His scholarship focuses on the correlates and consequences of child maltreatment, risk and resiliency, and positive youth development. His funded studies and publications examine health-risk behaviors in children exposed to adversity, protective factors that buffer against early risk exposure, and prevention. An international scholar, Dr. Herrenkohl works with policy makers, school and child welfare professionals, and community partners to increase the visibility, application, and sustainability of evidence-based programs and practices in violence prevention, social emotional learning, and child trauma.
Karen A. Roberto, Ph.D. is University Distinguished Professor, Executive Director of the Institute for Society, Culture and Environment, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on health and social support in late life and includes studies of rural older women, dementia family caregiving, and elder abuse. Her elder abuse work draws attention to family perpetrators, elder abuse and the opioid epidemic, intimate partner violence, financial exploitation, sexual abuse, and polyvictimization. Dr. Roberto is the recipient of the Gerontological Society of America Behavioral and Social Sciences Distinguished Mentorship Award and the Gary Andrews Visiting Fellow Award from the Australian Association for Gerontology.
Sandy Bromley, JD, is the director of the Shelby County Crime Victims & Rape Crisis Center, a comprehensive victim service center providing crisis intervention, advocacy, counseling, and forensic nursing services to victims of crime in Memphis and Shelby County. Sandy has focused her entire career on the prevention and intervention of crime, working as a victims’ rights attorney, an educator with the national Stalking Resource Center and the Air Force bystander intervention program Green Dot, and a leader in victim services policy and programs. When she’s not working on these issues, you can find her cheering on the Boston Red Sox, traveling to see family and friends, or listening to her favorite politics podcasts. Sandy is a firm believer that resiliency is possible after trauma and in the power of hope in creating communities free from violence and oppression.
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Youth and Domestic Violence: Needs, Services, and Impact
2022-01-27 12:00 - 13:30
Join the Center for Violence Prevention and the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing for an online discussion of our recent study
Youth who have experienced domestic violence in their homes have many psychosocial needs. Community-based domestic violence programs help address these needs through programs like counseling, childcare, and mentoring which helping with family stabilization and healing, but more support is needed. Join the Center for Violence Prevention and the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing for an online discussion of our recent statewide study, “Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Understanding the Community Service Response and Needs in Texas.” The research team and a panel of practitioners will discuss study findings and next steps to enhance the service response to youth and families experiencing domestic violence.
Presenters:

Dr. Leila Wood, Ph.D., MSSW – Director of Evaluation for the Center for Violence Prevention
Maggy McGiffert, MA – Senior Research Associate for the Center for Violence Prevention
Dr. Monica Faulkner, Ph.D. LMSW – TXICFW Director and Co-Principal Investigator
Anna Wasim, MSSW – TXICFW Lead Research Coordinator

1.5 CEUs will be offered for attending this online discussion.

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Society for Social Work and Research 26th Annual Conference
2022-01-12 - 2022-01-16
The SSWR Annual Conference offers a scientific program that reflects a broad range of research interests, from workshops on the latest quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to symposia featuring studies in child welfare, aging, mental health, welfare reform, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Over 500 symposia, workshop, roundtable, paper and poster presentations. Research methods workshops are designed to enhance methods expertise and grant-writing skills and special sessions on research priorities and capacity building that target cutting-edge topics vital to contemporary social work research.
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Leveraging Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships to Improve Human Trafficking Prevalence Studies
2022-01-05 13:00 - 14:00
How widespread is the problem of human trafficking in the United States? Understanding the scope of human trafficking prevalence is a priority for policymakers, law enforcement, researchers, and community-based practitioners. However, it can be difficult to accurately measure. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the strategies used to measure the prevalence of human trafficking, the importance of the engagement of community-based agency participation in this work, and a discussion of the benefits of taking a researcher-practitioner approach to prevalence research. The presenters for this presentation are currently collaborating on study to measure the prevalence of sex trafficking among adults in Sacramento County, California.
(Related article: “Advances in measurement: A scoping review of prior human trafficking prevalence studies and recommendations for future research” by K. Barrick & R. Pfeffer (2021). Journal of Human Trafficking. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2021.1984721″)
Presenters:
Terri Galvan has a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Southern California and more than 20 years of experience working with unhoused women, addiction, and commercial sexual exploitation. For the past 8 years, Terri has served as the Executive Director of Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH), where she leads a staff of trained peer-specialists providing assistance to women who have been commercially sexually exploited using harm reduction and trauma informed practices. Terri has provided training to local law enforcement, colleges, non-profit organizations, and service clubs and has worked closely with various law enforcement agencies to advance demand and person-centered strategies. She is a Principal Investigator for a research project estimating the scope of sex-trafficking in Sacramento County. Terri is Vice Chair for the UC Davis Community Advisory Board and Stockton Boulevard Partnership.
Rebecca Pfeffer is a research criminologist in the Victimization and Resilience Research Program in RTI International’s Division of Applied Justice Research. Her research interests include better understanding and addressing the victimization of vulnerable populations, ranging from survivors of human trafficking to people with disabilities. Additionally, her work focuses on the law enforcement response to human trafficking and the collaborative efforts of law enforcement and victim service providers. Dr. Pfeffer is an expert on human trafficking and has participated in expert working groups on trafficking research with the Office of Violence Against Women, the McCain Foundation, the Cook County Anti-Trafficking Task Force, and the Human Trafficking Research and Data Advisory Roundtable, among others. Before joining RTI in 2020, Dr. Pfeffer was a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Social Work at the University of Houston–Downtown from 2013 to 2020.
Kelle Barrick, a senior research criminologist in RTI’s Division for Applied Justice Research, has 20 years of experience in criminal justice and criminological research. She is an expert on human trafficking and has participated in expert working groups on trafficking research by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, among others. Dr. Barrick’s current efforts include estimating the prevalence of sex and labor trafficking; identifying successful strategies for the identification, investigation, and prosecution of labor trafficking cases; increasing our understanding of opportunities to disrupt sex trafficking recruitment and network operations; and conducting a formative evaluation of a law enforcement-based victim services program.
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The Changing Threat Landscape of Terrorism and Violent Extremism: Implications for Research and Policy
2021-12-18 13:00 - 14:30
This panel will provide an overview of the current terrorist threat landscape, how it has changed in the last five to ten years, and strategies to best address this threat at the local and national levels. Emphasis will be placed on how several key events in 2021 have shaped the way we think about research and policy in the fields of radicalization and extremism. Panelists will provide data on fluctuations of the most imminent terrorist threats posed to the U.S. over the last 10 years, why and how possible changes to the threat landscape have taken place, and ways in which the current terrorist threat should be combatted.
The National Institute of Justice’s “Research for the Real World” seminar series features research that is changing our thinking about policies and practices.
Panelists:
Matthew Levitt, Ph.D., Director, Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism & Intelligence, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Moderator)
William Braniff, Director, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), University of Maryland
Hazel Atuel, Ph.D. and Carl Castro, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Pete Simi, Ph.D., Chapman University
Haroro Ingram, Ph.D., The George Washington University Program on Extremism
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Analyzing Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
2021-12-09 13:00 - 15:00
The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation’s primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 150,000 household interviews, composed of nearly 240,000 interviews of persons within those households, on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The NCVS is a rich source of data on the nature of and victim response to crimes reported and not reported to police. The data files include about 1,000 variables on the characteristics of victims and incidents of violent crime (defined as rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) and property crime (which includes burglary/trespassing, motor vehicle theft, and other theft).
This workshop will introduce potential data users to the types of information available through the NCVS, offer an overview of the survey structure and sample design, and provide hands-on training to assist in properly analyzing the NCVS public-use data. Using SPSS, workshop participants will learn how to replicate key estimates published through the annual Criminal Victimization bulletin and available through data tools on https://bjs.ojp.gov.
Live captioning will be available.
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Panelists:
Heather Brotsos, Chief, Victimization Statistics, BJS
Erika Harrell, PhD, Statistician, BJS
Grace Kena, Statistician, BJS
Rachel Morgan, PhD, Statistician, BJS
Susannah Tapp, PhD, Statistician, BJS
Alexandra Thompson, Statistician, BJS
Jennifer Truman, PhD, Statistician, BJS
Keith Hullenaar, PhD, T32 Fellow, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Tara Martin, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
