May 30 - June 6, 2022

Investigates: Growing number of children at local schools Baker Acted by police

Yahoo News

"According to the most recent report by the University of South Florida, the Baker Act was used more than 37,000 times on children in fiscal year 2018-2019."

USF researchers think there is a direct correlation between access to guns & gun violence in America

WFTS (ABC) - Tampa

"'...when they’re going through it they just don’t have the easy access to guns that allow them to commit such a horrible crime, so easily and so quickly,' said Bryanna Fox, an associate professor..."

Arnold, M. L., Schwartz, B., Neil, H., Chisolm, T. H., & Sanchez, V. A. (2022). Feasibility and Assessment of a Hybrid Audiology Service Delivery Model for Older Adult Hearing Aid Users: A Pilot Study. American Journal of Audiology, 1–13. doi:10.1044/2022_aja-21-00200 

Kabiri, S., Shadmanfaat, S. M., Howell, C. J., Donner, C., & Cochran, J. K. (2022). Performance-Enhancing Drug Use Among Professional Athletes: A Longitudinal Test of Social Learning Theory. Crime & Delinquency, 68(5), 867–891. doi:10.1177/0011128719901111 

Quinones, L. M. (2022). Towards More Equitable Classrooms: A Review of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research. The Qualitative Report, 27(5), 1456-1459.

doi:10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5619

Rigg, K. K., & Johnson, M. E. (2022). Preventing Adolescent Opioid Misuse: Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Protective Effects of Extracurricular Activities. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 83(3), 402–411. doi:10.15288/jsad.2022.83.402 

Kathleen Moore, PhD (MHLP)

Hillsborough County Early Childhood Court Sequential Intercept Mapping

Sponsor: Hillsborough County 13th Judicial Court

4/12/2022-6/30/2022

Amount: $15,000

The Department of Mental Health Law & Policy was awarded a contract by Hillsborough County 13th Judicial Court to conduct a Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM) for Early Childhood Court (ECC). This court is a voluntary program for families with children 0-3 who enter court through Dependency Division. The goal of ECC is to promote timely permanency, improve child safety and well-being, and heal trauma. A main goal of the SIM process is to develop a plan to assess strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement of ECC processes. The SIM will be led by a multi-disciplinary team within the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, & Substance Abuse Technical Assistance Center that will facilitate discussion with approximately 25 stakeholders, including judges and court staff, child welfare, guardians ad litem, attorneys, and treatment providers. The SIM will address priority areas developed by the stakeholder group and recommendations will be aligned with ECC Best Practice standards.

Richard Dembo, PhD (Criminology)

Research on Juvenile Court Intake Practices and Reoffending

Sponsor: Mississippi State University

4/22/2022-12/31/2024

Amount: $108,000

This research project seeks to demonstrate that basing initial case handling decisions on the level of recidivism risk assessed at juvenile court intake will result in lower recidivism for juveniles who are diverted from further JJ processing and reserve limited JJ resources for youth with higher risks and service needs. The project will: (1) examine current youth court intake and case handling practices and the relationships between practices and juvenile reoffending, 2) develop a brief risk screening tool, risk level classification, and decision-support guide for use at court intake on all juveniles referred to Mississippi courts to inform case handling, and 3) implement and evaluate the impact of new intake practices on reoffending at six youth courts reflecting diverse MS jurisdictions. It is expected that knowledge gained from the research can be applied to other JJ jurisdictions across the country that do not use reoffending risk screening at the front end of the system to guide case handling.