Policy Analysis for Individuals

CEBCP scholars have a wide range of expertise on courts, corrections, and re-entry initiatives.


Domestic Violence

Collaborative Research: The Impact of COVID-19 on Victimization Risk and Service Needs for Domestic Violence Victims and Survivors. National Science Foundation.

Professor Yasemin-Irvin Erickson received a National Science Foundation grant to study the impacts of COVID-19 on domestic violence. This study will address the urgent need for programmatic research to advance the knowledge of domestic violence risks posed by COVID-19 and the availability and accessibility of nationwide resources for victims and survivors. The project integrates a multidisciplinary theoretical framework and a Rapid Assessment Methodology to understand the multifaceted nature of domestic violence. The theoretical framework includes criminological, epidemiological, public health, service advocacy perspectives. This study will also assess the service needs of domestic violence victims to identify nationwide proactive and protective interventions against domestic violence.


Courts and Corrections

Professor David Wilson conducts research across a range of justice issues. His systematic reviews have had wide reach with justice practitioners.

Dr. Charlotte Gill has studied probation and parole supervision policies, including intensive probation and risk-based supervision strategies.

Professors David Weisburd and David Wilson, with Badi Hasisi (Hebrew University), are conducting the first large-scale evaluation of correctional rehabilitation programs in the Israeli Prison Service.


Re-Entry

Improving the Success of Reentry Programs: Identifying the Impact of Service-Need Fit on Recidivism

Charlotte Gill (PI) and David Wilson (co-PI)

National Institute of Justice, 2012-IJ-CX-0013, $39,000

This research uses data from the national multisite evaluation of the federal Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) program to examine which characteristics of offenders influence the extent to which reentry services are matched with their risk-need profiles, and whether the degree of matching or ‘fit’ moderates the impact of reentry services on recidivism. The project addresses a gap in knowledge about how service matching and responsivity to offenders’ needs impacts the effectiveness of reentry programs by linking principles of effective intervention to this critical stage in the criminal justice process. We found that improved ‘fit’ is significantly associated with reduced recidivism (both officially recorded and self-reported), but that fewer than half of the participants in our sample received the services they said they needed. Service-need fit appears to be an important determinant of successful reentry.

FINAL REPORT (coming soon)

See also:

  • Gill, C. and D. B. Wilson (2016). Improving the Success of Reentry Programs: Identifying the Impact of Service-Need Fit on Recidivism. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44(3), 336-359.

Service brokerage for improving health outcomes in ex-prisoners

  • Stuart Kinner, Belinda Buford, Kate van Dooren, and Charlotte Gill
  • Dr. Charlotte Gill is working with colleagues in Australia on a Cochrane Collaboration systematic review of services for prisoners returning to the community.
  • Systematic review protocol (in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews)