Project
Project: Examining the Criminal Justice Systems’ Response to Stalking
About
Very few studies have examined the criminal justice systems’ response to stalking, particularly officer and prosecutorial decision-making. Research to date has shown that officers have a limited understanding of stalking within the context of domestic violence. Even more, few cases are referred to prosecutors and even fewer result in convictions for stalking. Thus, more research is needed to isolate predictors of charging decisions and prosecutions of stalking that differ from factors related to these decisions in non-stalking-related domestic violence cases. Understanding decision-making processes provides salient implications for training needs, as well as investigative and prosecutorial responses to stalking and domestic violence.
Resources
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Associated faculty
Patrick Q. Brady, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Patrick Brady received a PhD in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in 2017. In 2010, he graduated from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah with a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Forensic Science, and a minor in Sociology. He continued on an academic adventure to Boise State University, where he received a Master of Art’s degree in Criminal Justice in 2012. Patrick has spent the majority of his professional career working with youth in state-run treatment centers and therapeutic boarding schools. After obtaining his Master’s degree, he worked with a statewide domestic and sexual violence coalition to implement adolescent relationship abuse and sexual violence prevention programming in middle and high schools throughout Idaho. Patrick’s primary research interests focus on reducing burnout among police officers and improving university and justice system response to intimate partner stalking
Bradford Reyns, Ph.D. Co-PI
Brad Reyns is a criminologist specializing in issues surrounding criminal victimization. He received his Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati in 2010 and has been at Weber State University since 2011. His research spans the field of victimology, but has mostly focused on theories of victimization, victim decision making, and the relationship between technology use and victimization.
Rebecca Dreke
Rebecca Dreke is currently the Director of Training & Technical Assistance at the Stalking Resource Center (SRC) at the National Center for Victims of Crime. Dreke is a trainer on crime victim rights, technical assistance provider and manager of a nationally recognized program on stalking. She has over 15 years of experience working on stalking, intimate partner violence and sexual assault advocacy. As a director at the SRC, Dreke oversees a nationally recognized program on stalking, develops original curriculum and provides training for law enforcement, prosecutors, victim service providers and criminal and civil justice professionals as well as other specialists on all aspects of stalking, including the use of technology to stalk, campus stalking and stalking and sexual assault. Dreke also has authored publications for the field on stalking support groups, model campus policies to address stalking, methodology of stalking measurement, and guides for advocates. Dreke’s extensive background in the field of stalking provide an invaluable asset to the Consortium team, as well as her perspective as a practitioner and access to networks involved in the field of stalking.
Associated faculty
Primary Investigator, Laura Johnson, PhD, Rutgers University
Laura Johnson is an Assistant Research Professor at the Center on Violence Against Women and Children at the Rutgers School of Social Work. Her research interests include coordinated community responses to violence against women, with a focus on the criminal justice system, and program evaluation. Her dissertation examined the effectiveness of a financial literacy intervention on intimate partner violence survivors’ financial empowerment over time. Laura also sits on the New Jersey Child Fatality & Near Fatality Review Board Northern Regional Community-Based Team
Co-Primary Investigator Amanda Stylianou, PhD, Safe Horizon
Amanda M. Stylianou, is a social worker who focuses her career on improving services at the intersection of trauma, mental health and poverty. In her role as Associate Vice President of Quality and Program Development at Safe Horizon, the nation's leading victim services agency, she works with her team to ensure the organization is providing the most effective and efficient services to clients throughout NYC. Her current research focuses on understanding the needs of victims/survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking and on understanding and evaluating practices in the field. In addition to her work at Safe Horizon, Dr. Stylianou teaches in the MSW program at Rutgers University and offers several CEU trainings throughout New Jersey with Rutgers University's Institute for Families. Dr. Stylianou has published in a variety of journals including Social Work, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence against Women, Violence and Victims, Affilia and Children and Youth Services Review.