From the Director’s Desk: “Cheers for Peers” Summer 2021

Dear CJ Community –

Grab an extra-large cup of coffee or tea and settle in for this lengthy summer edition of Cheers for Peers! You all are amazing researchers, mentors, partners with community organizations, and faculty! Thank you very much for all you do for the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice!

CHEERS to you and to some relaxing summer days,

Wendy

• Emily Konecke, undergraduate Criminal Justice student, and her faculty mentor, Dr. Adam Dobrin , received a $4,000 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship award to fund their research project entitled, “Exploratory Evaluation of the Accuracy of the Opinions of Graduating Criminal Justice Students of Issues of Controversial Criminal Justice Topics”.Read more
  
  
• FAU’s 12^th Annual Graduate Research Symposium is a university-wide competition open to active and enrolled degree-seeking graduate students from all academic disciplines. The symposium provides students with the opportunity to present their research to esteemed faculty judges from all disciplines. The top two posters in each category will win a $500 scholarship award, for a total of 10 awards. This spring MSCCJ graduate students Kevin Lopez (advisor: Dr. Gabriel Cesar) and John Robertson (advisor: Dr. Lisa Dario) presented their research in the Arts, Education, and Social Sciences category. Kevin’s qualitative project originated in Dr. Cesar’s graduate qualitative methods course, and John’s GIS project originated in Dr. Kendra Gentry’s crime mapping course. Information on their presentations:

Underage Drinking: The Examination of Habits and Long-Term Consequences by Kevin Lopez. Kevin Lopez is a graduate student in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University. His qualitative research project uses originally collected survey data (n=203), and explores the deviant behavior of underage alcohol consumption. Participants were asked thematic questions about their access to alcohol, introduction to alcohol, experience with alcohol, and other drinking habits. Questions also focused on potential consequences, long-lasting habits, and self-reflection due to youthful alcohol consumption.

Mapping Marijuana Related Crimes in Denver, CO Pre- and Post-Amendment 64 by John Robertson. John Robertson is a second semester graduate student in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University. His research examines if the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana in Colorado is related to an increase, decrease, or no change in crime in the city of Denver. Industry and non-industry crimes were geocoded for 2013, 2014, and 2017 using ArcGis. Results are inconclusive, with short-term increases and decreases. Crime was geographically stable throughout the time series.

• Dr. Cassandra Atkin-Plunk’s expert work on reentry with Palm Beach County was featured in a US DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance report focusing on researcher/practitioner partnerships. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/second-chance-act-innovations-reentry-initiative
  
  
• Dr. Bruce Arneklev was honored at the annual employee FAU Service Awards ceremony in April for his 25 years of research, teaching, and service at FAU.
  
  
• Dr. Mara Schiff is an invited Plenary Speaker at the Restorative Justice Over Distance conference happening this week about “Pivoting Restorative Justice” at the annual conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ), https://www.euforumrj.org/en/virtual-symposium-restorative-justice-over-distance and an invited Plenary Speaker at theNational School Board Association Equity Symposium in July, addressing “Building a Restorative Culture to Disrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline” https://www.nsba.org/Events/Equity-Online-Symposium-2021-Summer
  
  
• Dr. Sameer Hinduja is the Co-Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Bullying Prevention, and at only two years old, the journal had 90,523 downloads from Jan-Dec 2020. https://www.springer.com/journal/42380
  
  
• Dr. Wendy Guastaferro was invited to serve as an expert reviewer for the Campbell Collaboration regarding research on risk and protective factors of cognitive and behavioral radicalization and extremist violence. The Campbell Collaboration is an international network of researchers that prepares and disseminates systematic reviews of high-quality research on methods to improve outcomes in the areas of education, crime and justice, social welfare and international development.
  
  
• Dr. Mara Schiff’s 2018 article, “Can restorative justice disrupt the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’?” in  Contemporary Justice Review, 21(2), 121-139 is currently the 5^th most read article in that journal (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10282580.2018.1455509) and her 2015 chapter with colleagues F. Davis and M. Lyubansky, “Restoring Racial Justice” in Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences was recently translated into Portuguese for use by Brazilian academics and members of the national judiciary.
  
  
• Dr. Lisa Dario’s 2019 article with colleagues M.D. White and J.A. Shjarback, “Assessing dangerousness in policing: An analysis of law enforcement officer deaths in the United States, 1970-2016” in Criminology & Public Policy, 18(1), 1-49 was in the top 10% of downloaded papers in this premiere journal between January 2018-December 2019.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1745-9133.12408
  
  
• Branscum, C., & Fallik, S. W. (2021). A content analysis on state human trafficking statutes: How does the legal system acknowledge survivors in the United States (US)?. Crime, Law and Social Change, 1-23. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10611-021-09958-x
  
  
• Douds, A. S., Ahlin, E. M.,  Atkin-Plunk, C., & Posteraro, M. (2021). Noble intent is not enough to run Veterans Court mentoring programs: A qualitative study of mentors’ role orientation and responsibilities. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology. https://www.qualitativecriminology.com/pub/v10i2-p2/release/1
  
  
• Sloas, L. B., & Larrea, M. (2021). Rethinking sanctioning for offenders with mental health issues: A balanced justice approach. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 1-14. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12103-021-09620-1
  
  
• Guastaferro, K.M., Osborne, M.C., Lai, B.S., Aubé, S.,  Guastaferro, W.P. , & Whitaker, D.J. (2021). Parent and child reports of parenting behaviors: Agreement among a longitudinal study of drug court participants. Frontiers in Psychology,  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.667593/abstract
  
  
• Branscum, C., Cain, C. M., & Fallik, S. W.  (2021). Exploring the Nature of Anti-trafficking Laws: A Content Analysis of State Statutes. Journal of Human Trafficking, 1-15. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23322705.2021.1917213