Effects of Tobacco & ENDS Policies on Patterns of Adolescent ENDS Use
The emergence of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use may be a double-edged sword for public health. On one hand, ENDS may assist tobacco cessation among adult smokers. On the other, they may be a pathway to tobacco initiation and nicotine dependence for new users, particularly adolescents, and ENDS may carry unique risks to lung health. Tobacco control policies proliferated in recent decades (e.g. public smoking bans, increased excise taxes, youth access restrictions, and advertising constraints). Studies indicate such policies contributed greatly to declines in smoking, particularly among youth. Yet, the potential impact of tobacco control policies on ENDS use remains unclear. Further, ENDS-specific policies implemented more recently have not been well studied. Thus, research is needed to examine how tobacco policies and emerging ENDS policies affect trajectories of ENDS use and related tobacco use as adolescents transition into early adulthood, a critical period for prevention. Our research examines policy impacts on ENDS use as well as co-use of tobacco and ENDS. We also assess differences in policy effects according to developmentally-relevant parental contexts (e.g., parental smoking or ENDS use; household bans on use; parent monitoring). Finally, to account for fundamental causes of health disparities, we analyze how policy effects vary by gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and geographic contexts.
To understand how policies affect patterns of adolescent ENDS and related tobacco use over time, we require a geocoded, repeated observations dataset of ENDS and tobacco use, a comprehensive database of tobacco control and ENDS regulations, and a statistical method capable of handling a complex data structure. We will achieve these goals by merging data from three sources: (a) the annually collected Population Assessment of Tobacco & Health (PATH) study of 13,651 adolescents (ages 12 to 17 at Wave 1) followed prospectively; (b) a state-year database constructed from the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation (ANRF) repository of tobacco-related ordinances and ENDS policies; and (c) U.S. census data. By linking these datasets, we will embed youth within changing policy contexts to understand how policies impact patterns of ENDS use, related tobacco use, and co-use. The repeated observation and contextual aspects of our modeling approaches will produce empirically robust conclusions on the between- and within-adolescent impacts of these policies.
Project Team
Principal Investigator
- Brian C. Kelly, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
Email: bckelly@purdue.edu
Co-Investigators
- Mike Vuolo, D, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Email: vuolo.2@osu.edu - Jeremy Staff, D, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. Email: jus25@psu.edu
- Jennifer L. Maggs, D, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. Email: jlm73@psu.edu
- Constanza Paulina Silva Gallardo, Ph.D, CJRC Postdoctoral Scholar
About the Project
- The project builds upon our team’s expertise in policy, substance use, life course, and statistical and mathematical modeling.
- The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded $1,059,608 to support the project over a 3 year period.
Research Aims
- Assess the impact of tobacco and ENDS policies on longitudinal trajectories of ENDS and related tobacco use (initiation, prevalence, duration, frequency, and cessation) among adolescents.
- Determine whether tobacco and ENDS policies are more influential for ENDS trajectories of specific subgroups defined by parenting contexts and individual- and contextual-level inequalities.
Implications
Beyond providing the first nationally representative repeated observations study of the effects of tobacco and ENDS policies on within-individual variations in ENDS use among adolescents, this study contributes in additional ways. First, if particular policies reduce ENDS use, wider implementation could decrease long-term dependence and negative health effects as adolescents age into adulthood. Second, identifying policies that prevent transitions to tobacco use by early adulthood could improve population health and lead to decreases in healthcare expenditures. Third, the results will demonstrate which policies have wide impact and whether specific policies benefit certain youth, which is important for minimizing health disparities and improving population health more broadly.
Certified Recovery Specialists and the Reentry of Prisoners with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD)
This pilot project evaluates an intervention targeting state prisoners with opioid use disorders (OUD) who will exit prison in Central Pennsylvania to promote recovery and reduce overdose risks in the period immediately upon community reentry.
Project Team
- Principal Investigator: Derek Kreager, Ph.D., Department of Sociology & Criminology (dkreager@psu.edu)
- Investigators: Gary Zajac, Ph.D., Managing Director of CJRC, Katherine McLean, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn State Greater Allegheny, Jennifer Murphy, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn State Berks, Glenn Sterner, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn State Abington
About the Project
- The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs made an award of $110,000 to Penn State to support this project.
- This project is a collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and RASE Project.
Research Questions and Project Details
- Core to the intervention is the connection of eligible participants, while they remain incarcerated, to community-based Certified Recovery Specialists (CRSs) who will assist in the transition from prison to community. This individualized, case-management system will operate in parallel, but outside of reporting responsibility, to correctional staff to increase client trust, communication, and treatment compliance. Penn State researchers will recruit and interview participants and their caregivers to understand the efficacy of the intervention, potential mechanisms, and if it can be brought to scale across the Commonwealth.
Life Course and Intergenerational Effects of Criminal Justice Involvement: Identifying risks, the search for resilience, and the impact of the rise in opioid misuse and the Covid-19 pandemic Project
This project seeks to extend data collection for The Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) and its intergenerational extension, the Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS). The measurement space of RYDS and RIGS have produced numerous works devoted to the study of risk and protective factors for delinquency and offending, including intergenerational risk and protective factors for childhood and adolescent maladaptive behaviors.
Project Team
- Principal Investigator: Megan Augustyn (The University of Texas at San Antonio)
- Co-Principal Investigator: Megan Kurlychek, Ph.D., Department of Sociology and Criminology (mck6@psu.edu)
- Co-Investigator Kimberly Henry (Colorado State University)
About the Project
- The U.S. Department of Justice made an award of 1,881,736 to support this project.
- This work will extend the work of the The Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) and its intergenerational extension, the Rochester Intergenerational Study (RIGS).
Research Questions and Project Details
- This project will help to better understand patterns of offending over the life course. The original focal participants of RYDS are reaching their late 40s, and it is now possible to examine how patterns of risky behavior persist and/or desist in mature adulthood as well as examine the social, economic and health consequences associated with these behaviors. Previous studies largely rely upon cohorts born prior to the 1960s and cannot speak to recent generations who came of age in a different historical time and place (e.g., different penal policies and health pandemics like COVID-19).
- The project will examine the impact of parental behavior on child outcomes as these youth transition into adulthood and face unique contextual circumstances (e.g., the opioid epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic).
- New data collection efforts will allow for parameters of bias to be generated for existing intergenerational studies of offending as almost all intergenerational studies suffer from a selection effect – parents (particularly fathers) without contact with their children are typically excluded.
Implications
- This study will have important implications for understanding the ongoing risk and potential deficits of this cohort as they enter late adulthood to inform future policy.
Identifying and Informing Strategies for Disrupting Drug Distribution Networks: An Application of Community Policing to Opiate Flows in Pennsylvania
Project Team
- Principal Investigators: Glenn Sterner, Post-Doctoral Scholar, Justice Center for Research, Department of Sociology and Criminology, ges5098@psu.edu; Ashton Verdery, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography, Department of Sociology and Criminology, amv5430@psu.edu; Shannon Monnat, Associate Professor, Sociology, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, smmonnat@maxwell.syr.edu
- Co-Investigators: Pete Forster, Associate Dean, College of Information Sciences and Technology, pforster@ist.psu.edu; Gary Zajac, Managing Director, Justice Center for Research, gxz3@psu.edu; Scott Yabiku, Department of Sociology and Criminology, sty105@psu.edu
About the Project
- The National Institute of Justice made an award of $990,002 to Penn State to support this project, for the period January 1, 2018 – December, 31, 2019.
- The Pilot Study for this project was supported by the College of the Liberal Arts.
Research Questions
1. What are the characteristics of heroin and fentanyl distribution networks? We will focus on their hierarchical structure, number and strength of connections, clusters of distribution possibly associated with different organizations, susceptibility of distribution networks to disruption, and geographic spread.
2. What are the characteristics (same as #1) of prescription opioid distribution networks?
3. How do the distribution networks of heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opiates compare?
4. How do residents’ perceptions of the geographic locations of opiate distribution compare to police collected data on opiate arrests, opiate seizures, and distribution locations?
5. What are the differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and major highway access between neighborhoods with high versus low opiate distribution as defined by arrest data?
6. What are the differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and major highway access between neighborhoods with high versus low opiate distribution as defined by participatory mapping?
Project Objectives
1. Identify and document the structure of heroin and fentanyl distribution networks in PA.
2. Identify and document the structure of diverted prescription opioid networks in PA.
3. Compare heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid distribution networks in PA and their connections to each other.
4. Develop and apply tools to record resident identified locations of local opiate distribution in 6 Pennsylvania Counties.
5. Compare resident identified locations of local opiate distribution to relevant arrest locations.
6. Describe the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods with high vs. low distribution (as measured by arrest records and respondent reporting).
7. Provide recommendations for law enforcement to better target heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid distribution networks in ways that increase network disruption.
8. Provide recommendations for improving intelligence gathering activities related to documenting and disrupting opiate distribution networks.
9. Create stronger community and law enforcement connections.
10. Disseminate information for opiate treatment and reporting of illicit activity at study sites.
11. Create a portable data fusion model that other jurisdictions can employ to document, detect, and disrupt opiate distribution networks.
Implications
Looking more broadly at the value and impact of a geo-spatial approach to understanding opiate markets and avenues for their disruption, opiate abuse has tremendous consequences for the welfare of drug users, affecting their long term involvement in the criminal justice system, as well as their health, employment and employability, family relations, and other outcomes. Drug use and the criminal justice system involvement that often follows have consequences for the wellbeing not only of addicts and dealers themselves, but also for their families and more broadly their communities. Improved interdiction approaches that can result from our proposed study has benefits not only for the criminal justice and public health systems that are responding to the opiate crisis, but also for the communities that are harmed by widespread use of these substances, where such harm includes public health impacts, violence and social disorder. Our project will also encourage broader collaboration between researchers and law enforcement, especially in rural communities, and will set the stage for further applications of research and analysis to the study of opiate and other drug abuse in other communities beyond PA, demonstrating the importance of this approach and testing methods and innovations that can be diffused across many law enforcement settings nationally. We have an extensive plan to disseminate this information to a broad audience, including local and state criminal justice organizations, local, state, and national government officials, academic organizations, non-profit organizations, treatment and addiction centers, and task forces.
Although this study is limited to six counties in PA, the analyses and results from this study will have the ability to inform policy and practice across the Commonwealth and the United States. First, our innovative approach to data fusion will be of interest to law enforcement agencies to use as a model for addressing complex criminal justice issues. We are utilizing datasets from multiple units within the PA State Police to develop understandings of drug distributions. Similarly, we are utilizing community-based data gathering and existing data to gain clearer understandings of drug sales in neighborhoods. By tackling this issue from multiple perspectives, we are able to provide recommendations for police enforcement policy and practice to ensure efforts are maximized to disrupt the distribution of opiates. Integration across inter-departmental agencies and across jurisdictions is a model that could be applied to the opiate epidemic and other criminal justice concerns. Second, by identifying the common characteristics of communities where significant distribution occurs, we can inform criminal justice agencies on potential areas for concentrating officer targeting.
Project Partners
Justice Center for Research, Penn State College of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State Police, Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, and The Center for Rural Pennsylvania.
Share Your Opioid Story: A Collaboration between Independence Blue Cross Foundation, The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, and Penn State University
Project Team
Principal Investigator: Glenn Sterner, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator: Gary Zajac, Ph.D.
Researcher: Elaine Arsenault, M.A.
About the Project
Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties continue to present some of the highest rates of overdose from opiates in Pennsylvania. In 2015, 1,338 individuals lost their lives in the five county Philadelphia Region. Along with this loss in our community, addiction treatment, law enforcement issues, and disruption of family life all accompany those affected by the opioid crisis in the Philadelphia region and beyond.
The story of the opiate crisis in the Philadelphia Region, much like the rest of the country, continues to be told through the use of staggering statistics including the deaths reported above, rates of overdoses, uses of opiate reversal therapy, amount of people seeking treatment, amount of additional resources needed to treat those suffering with addiction, amount of opiates seized from law enforcement, among many others. However, these numbers fail to capture the effect of opiate addiction on individuals, family members, friends, and communities.
Glenn Sterner will coordinate a team of individuals that consists of Penn State University researchers and IBX professionals on a project to tell the individual stories of the opiate crisis in the Philadelphia Region and Philadelphia more broadly, addressing the stigma associated with opioid addiction. Dr. Sterner, a Post-Doctoral Scholar in the Justice Center for Research at Penn State University, is an expert with regards to the opiate crisis. He is involved in numerous research projects across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to address this issue, and he is Chair of the Pennsylvania Coalition to address Heroin and Opioid Addiction. Through this project, the aim is to illuminate and give voice to those affected by the opiate crisis to raise awareness of how pervasive and invasive this crisis is in the Philadelphia region and across the Commonwealth. The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs has signed on as a partner in this project to expand its reach across the state. Through the collaboration between Penn State University researchers, IBX professionals, and the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, we hope to tell the stories of individuals of the opiate crisis in our Philadelphia communities to reduce the stigma associated with addiction and thereby enable others to talk more broadly about this critical subject to receive the help they desperately need. This effort is funded by the IBX Foundation, and all products of the project will be made available to the public through an interactive website. In addition, we will be engaging student interns from the Rehabilitation and Human Services Program at the Penn State Abington Campus to host community events in the summer of 2018 to facilitate community conversations around stigma associated with the opioid crisis.
Project Objectives
Through this phase of the project we aim to:
- Interview 3-5 individuals from each of the 5 counties in the Philadelphia Region (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia) who have been affected by opiate addiction.
- Produce 10 short videos that will tell an individual’s story.
- Produce 30 short print stories that will tell each individual’s story.
- PSU team will work with IBX Foundation’s communications staff to prepare and broadly disseminate findings and stories through blog postings and articles.
- Produce a website that highlights the stories of opioid addiction.
- Host community presentations on the stories and website, and assess the impact of these presentations on audiences.
- Increase awareness of the broad spectrum of people affected by opiate addiction in the Philadelphia Region and across Pennsylvania.
- Increase awareness of resources available to those affected by opiate addiction in the Philadelphia Region and across Pennsylvania.
Implications
This is an incredibly important project, as it will help to begin to explore the diverse experiences associated with the opioid crisis currently ravaging our communities. By helping to address the stereotypes associated with opioid addiction and those affected by opioid addiction by illuminating the myriad diverse individuals in our study, we may be able to increase those seeking help for opioid addiction and expedite this process. Stigma associated with opioid addiction can lead to shame associated with this disease, which delays the initiation into addiction counseling services. By beginning to help to address this stigma through our research, individuals may be more apt to seek services earlier, leading to quicker positive outcomes.
Through our website and outreach activities, we hope to be able to connect those affected by the opioid crisis on a broader scale. We also hope to give voice to those stories associated with the opioid crisis.
Additionally, this project will help to examine the effects of the opioid crisis and opioid addiction on individuals, helping us to examine research needed to document the ways that this crisis may be differentially affecting communities and marginalized individuals. We anticipate that this will uncover narratives that will differ across experiences, leading to further expanded research.
Finally, this project will help to further understand the depth of impact on individuals in our sample by the opioid crisis and opioid addiction. While quantitative studies document the propensity of this issue, this project is specifically designed to provide greater context of the statistical analyses, and may uncover additional areas for quantitative research opportunities. This project will help to provide a needed understanding of the life altering experiences associated with the opioid crisis and opioid addiction.
Project Partners
Justice Center for Research, Independence Blue Cross Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs
Participate in the Project
Telling the Stories of the Opioid Crisis – We want to hear from you
Have you lost a loved one or a friend to an opioid overdose? Are you in recovery from opioid addiction? Are you currently struggling with opioid addiction? Or maybe you have been affected by the opioid epidemic in some other way.
We want to talk to you, because we would like to hear your story.
Dr. Glenn Sterner from the Justice Center for Research at Penn State University is working to collect the stories of the opioid crisis in our Philadelphia communities. We want to show the human side of the opioid epidemic, how it affects people of all backgrounds, and the impacts it has had on individuals, family members, friends and communities.
We have two goals. First, we want to reduce the stigma surrounding the crisis and help people to talk about opioid addiction more openly. Second, we want to connect those affected by the opioid crisis, so you can know that you are not alone. By doing so, we hope to assist those affected in getting the help they desperately need.
If you live in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties, we want to sit down with you and hear your story of how the opioid epidemic has affected your life. From this interview, we will document your story and post it in on an online website we are in the process of creating that will share your story and the story of others across the Philadelphia region and across Pennsylvania.
If you are interested in sharing your story, please email shareopioidstories@gmail.com or call 814-867-3295. We will connect with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your interest.
Understanding Incarceration and Re-Entry Experiences of Female Inmates and their Children: The Women’s Prison Inmate Networks Study (WO-PINS)
Project Team
- Investigators: Derek Kreager, Department of Sociology & Criminology (dkreager@psu.edu), Gary Zajac, Sara Wakefield (Rutgers University), Dana Haynie (Ohio State University), and Michaela Soyer (Hunter College)
About the Project
- This project will fill three critical knowledge gaps identified by the National Research Council in their report on the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in the United States: (1) the absence of even basic information on modern conditions of confinement, (2) the potential heterogeneity in incarceration effects across individual and institutional contexts, and (3) the limited understanding of any association between maternal incarceration and child well-being.
- The proposed project will leverage strong relationships with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to explore the prison and re-entry experiences of female inmates incarcerated in two Pennsylvania prison units.
Project Details
- In Phase 1, investigators will reveal each units’ informal organization and culture using innovative social network data that maps the unit’s friendship network, status hierarchy, and romantic ties. Network analyses will test hypotheses for the sources of prison status and the associations between inmate social position and outcomes such as prison victimization, mental health, official misconduct, and family visitation.
- In Phase 2, parole-eligible inmate respondents in the two Pennsylvania prisons will be administered semi-structured qualitative and network interviews to garner their future expectations, social capital, and preparations for community re-entry. Women’s expected social networks provide a unique glimpse into the re-entry process that can later be compared to actual networks upon release. This phase of the project has clear implications for family reintegration, employment, post-release program participation, and relapse/recidivism. Contemporaneously, child and caregiver interviews will be conducted for inmate respondents who are mothers. These interviews will capture the well-being, fears, aspirations, and preparations of inmates’ families and surrogate parents prior to prison release.
- During Phase 3, investigators will conduct two post-release community interviews of Phase 2 respondents to understand how the previously imprisoned women, their children, and caregivers have adjusted to life after prison and if their envisioned plans came to fruition. The goals of this phase will be to identify and drill down on the mechanisms underlying successful prison re-entry and criminal desistance.
Project Products
- Aided by an advisory board of social scientists, correctional practitioners, and child advocates, the project’s data and products will test theoretically-driven hypotheses while also informing prison-based and community programs aimed at smoothing the inmate re-entry experience and reducing negative child and inmate health and behavioral outcomes.
- NIJ award for $685,857 over 3 years.
Prison Inmate Networks Study (PINS)
Project Team
- Principal Investigator: Derek Kreager, Ph.D., Department of Sociology & Criminology (dkreager@psu.edu)
- Co-Principal Investigator: Gary Zajac
- Co-Investigators: Martin Bouchard (SFU), Dana Haynie (OSU), David Schaefer (ASU), Michaela Soyer (Hunter), Jacob Young (ASU), Sara Wakefield (Rutgers)
About the Project
- The National Science Foundation made an award of $323,814 to Penn State to support this project, for the period April 15, 2015 – March 31, 2017.
- Seed funding was provided by the Justice Center to support development of this project, including collection of pilot data.
- This study is related to the TC-PINS project discussed in the next section and the R-PINS project under development, discussed under the Justice Center Supported Projects section.
Research Questions
- What is the structure and implications of inmate network ties for in-prison health and rehabilitation and post-release recidivism?
- How does an inmate’s position within the unit’s informal network structure relate to his out-of-prison ties and community reentry?
Project Details
- Project focuses on inmate social networks in a minimum security general population unit at a medium security Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution.
- All inmates within a single unit were recruited for participation in computer assisted personal interviews, with a response rate of approximately 70% across two waves of data collection during summer and fall of 2015.
- Project has full support from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Public Data
- The PINS team has made available two networks collected during Wave 1 of the study. The “get along with network” and the “power/influence network” are available as edgelists in .csv format. Use of either data set are subject to the PINS acknowledgement and citation as described below.
- PINS Network Descriptions (MS Word)
- PINS Power and Influence Edgelist
- PINS Get Along With Edgelist
- How do I acknowledge the use of the PINS data in an analysis? Please use the following text when acknowledging the use of the data: This research uses data from The Prison Inmate Network Study (PINS), a program project directed and designed Derek Kreager Martin Bouchard, Dana Haynie, David Schaefer, Michaela Soyer, Sara Wakefield, Jacob Young, and Gary Zajac, and is funded by grant LSS-1457193 from the National Science Foundation. Special acknowledgment is due to Corey Whichard, Ed Hayes, Gerardo Cuevas, Wade Jacobsen, and Kim Davidson for interview and coding assistance, and to Bret Bucklen and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for their valuable support of this project. No direct support was received from grant LSS-1457193 for this analysis.
- How do I cite PINS data in a manuscript? Please use the following text when citing the use of the data: Kreager, Derek, Martin Bouchard, Dana Haynie, David Schaefer, Michaela Soyer, Sara Wakefield, Jacob Young, and Gary Zajac. 2015. The Prison Inmate Network Study (PINS), Wave I, 1995. State College, PA: Justice Center for Research, Penn State University.
Implications
- This study will have important implications for understanding how inmate social networks influence inmates’ lives and wellbeing in prison, as well as their reentry prospects.
View the Project Abstract (.docx file)
Reentry Prison Inmate Networks Study (R-PINS)
Project Team
- Investigators: Derek Kreager, Department of Sociology & Criminology (dkreager@psu.edu), Corey Whichard (PSU Criminology doctoral student), Sara Wakefield (Rutgers), Michaela Soyer (Hunter)
About the Project
- This project in development extends the current PINS study (see summary of this under Active Funded Research Projects) with intensive interviews of parole-eligible inmates prior to and after prison release.
- Seed funding was provided by the Justice Center to support development of this project and interview costs.
- External funding is currently being sought to further the development of this work.
Research Questions and Project Details
- This project will explore post-release experiences of inmates enrolled in PINS, examining the impact of prison-based and community network ties on post release outcomes including employment, housing, community social ties, health and recidivism.
- A subset of inmates who participated in the PINS study were recruited to participate in interviews after their release, with over 100 surveyed inmates agreeing to do so.
- Exploratory interviews are presently being conducted throughout the state with inmates who have since been released to test methods and elucidate questions in support of a larger research agenda around inmate social networks and reentry experiences and outcomes. Released inmates will be interviewed in several waves.
- This line of inquiry can lend important policy insight into how social capital and ties before, during and after prison impact reentry outcomes and promote successful offender reintegration.
Therapeutic Community Prison Inmate Networks Study (TC-PINS)
Project Team
- Principal Investigator: Derek Kreager, Ph.D., Department of Sociology & Criminology (dkreager@psu.edu)
- Co-Investigators: Gary Zajac, Martin Bouchard (SFU), George DeLeon, (NYU), Dana Haynie (OSU), David Schaefer (ASU), Michaela Soyer (Hunter), Jacob Young (ASU)
About the Project
- The National Institute of Health made an award of $444,084 to Penn State to support this project, for the period August 1, 2015 – July 31, 2017.
- Seed funding was provided by the Justice Center to support development of this project, including collection of pilot data.
- This study is related to the PINS project discussed in the previous section and the R-PINS project under development, discussed under the Justice Center Supported Projects section.
Research Questions
- How does the informal inmate network structure relate to the diffusion of treatment outcomes in a prison-based therapeutic community?
- How do inmates’ positions within the TC network structure relate to their treatment engagement and post-TC drug relapse and criminal recidivism?
- How do informal inmate network structures influence offender reentry?
Project Details
- Project will focus on inmate social networks in a drug and alcohol treatment therapeutic community (TC) within a State Correctional Institution within the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
- Selection of a specific institution is still being finalized, with an initial wave of data collection anticipated for summer of 2016.
- As with the PINS study, all inmates within a selected TC will be recruited for participation in computer assisted personal interviews.
- Project has full support from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
Implications
- This study will have important implications for understanding how inmate social networks influence inmate reentry as well as the dynamics of the prison therapeutic community setting.
Examining Murder Convictions and Punishment
Project Team
- Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Ulmer, Ph.D., Department of Sociology & Criminology (jtu100@psu.edu)
- Co-Investigator: Gary Zajac, Ph.D.
- Project Consultant: John Kramer, Ph.D., Department of Sociology & Criminology- Emeritus
About the Project
- The National Science Foundation made an award of $300,000 to Penn State to support this project over a two year period.
- This study will build upon the work previously conducted by Drs. Kramer, Ulmer, and Zajac on death sentencing in Pennsylvania.
Research Questions
- How are level of homicide charging decisions made?
- How are second and third degree murder cases processed through the criminal justice system, relative to capital cases?
- How do charging decisions relate to county characteristics, such as demographics, voting patterns, etc.?
- How do prosecutors make decisions about whether to file for the death penalty in homicide cases?
Project Details
- Utilize and expand on the case processing analysis conducted under the previous Death Penalty study.
Implications
- Results will inform our understanding of the dynamics of murder case processing across all levels of homicide charging.
Pennsylvania State Police TRIAD Program
Project Team
- Principal Investigators: Pennsylvania State Police
- Co-Investigators: Jennifer Gibbs, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Program, Penn State Harrisburg; Jonathan Lee, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Program, Penn State Harrisburg; Glenn Sterner, Post-Doctoral Scholar, Justice Center for Research, Department of Sociology and Criminology, ges5098@psu.edu
About the Project
- Proposal to the Bureau of Justice Assistance
Project Details
To combat the rise in drug-related crime and deaths, PSP will utilize Smart Policing Initiative FY2016 Competitive Grant (SPI) funds, under Purpose Area 1: Smart Policing Innovation, to develop “The Triad Program.” The Triad Program (TRIAD) is a mitigation strategy driven by arrest and overdose data, to be evaluated for effectiveness by the research partners at Penn State University, utilizing measurable performance metrics.
TRIAD will synchronize innovative enforcement strategies, driven by cutting-edge technology, while leveraging information received by community input and outreach, along with police-gathered intelligence. TRIAD is named for the three main component parts that will be brought to bear on the problem of drug-related crime and deaths: Incident Response Team, Technological Dashboard, and Community Partnership.
The TRIAD program will be assessed through a quasi-experimental design using Harrisburg City and York City as target areas, and two respective comparison areas which will be determined based on demographic characteristics. Pre-intervention and post-intervention data collection will be implemented through PSP database sharing and resident surveys at both the target and comparison areas. Crime analysis will deliver hot-spot identification and examine situational factors associated with high odds of criminal incidents. Surveys will shed light on individual perceptions of drug activities and police enforcement, among others.
Project Objectives
- Mitigate overdose rates in York and Harrisburg and their surrounding counties.
- Increase disruption of opiate distribution networks through increased surveillance and arrests.
Implications
This project has great potential for sustainability after the SPI funding period. Once the Technical Dashboard is purchased, PSP will have the resources to continue the TRIAD program. Additionally, the PSP Commissioner has encouraged police-researcher partnerships to ensure evidence-based practices, and Penn State Harrisburg has a commitment to promoting evidence-based practices in policing. Further, PSP has networks and influence with other jurisdictions across the Commonwealth, and PSP fully intends to introduce the TRIAD program to other areas if it is effective. This includes presenting the project at various regional and national conferences (e.g., IACP, Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association). Finally, the research partners will attend academic conferences and produce academic publications to disseminate results to the academic community, who can promote the TRIAD program to other jurisdictions.
Project Products
- BJA Grant Proposal submitted April 12, 2016 for $697,473
Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills (BaSICS) Program
Project Team
- Principal Investigator: Martha Wadsworth, Ph.D., Department of Psychology (mew27@psu.edu)
- Co-Investigators: Mark Feinberg, Ph.D. (PSU), Jarl Ahlkvist, Ph.D. (PSU), Gina Brelsford, Ph.D. (Penn State Harrisburg), and Damon Jones, Ph.D. (PSU)
About the Project
- The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded Penn State $2,800,000 to support this project for the period May 2016 – April 2018 and May 2018-April 2021 pending successful completion of the first two years’ goals.
- Testing the efficacy of BaSICS for promoting adaptation among at-risk preadolescents.
- Seed funding was provided by the Justice Center to support the development of the funding application.
Research Questions
- Does BaSICS lead to acquisition and use of adaptive individual and collective coping strategies?
- Do children who complete BaSICS show improved physiologic stress regulation in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) in comparison to children who do not receive the intervention (control)?
- Do children who complete BaSICS show lower levels of anxiety, PTSD, and depression than control children at post-test and follow-up? Are improved coping skills and HPA regulation mechanisms of these differences?
Project Details
- Conduct pre- and post-intervention and follow-up assessments measuring proposed mechanisms that contribute to maladaptation in youth facing adversity, including regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and acquisition of adaptive ways to cope with chronic, uncontrollable stress (SAM).
- Implement and evaluate BaSICS using a randomized control trial.
Implications
- Findings will elucidate how psychosocial interventions can improve preadolescents’ physiologic regulation, how long-lasting such changes are, and the extent to which physiologic change is necessary and/or sufficient to prevent anxiety and depression in at-risk youths.
- There are important implications of this work for eradication of income- and race-based health disparities.
RiseUptown: A Comprehensive Community Collaboration to Reduce the Adverse Effects of Poverty on Urban Adolescents
Project Team
· Principal Investigators: Martha Wadsworth, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Penn State-UPark (mew27@psu.edu); Jonathan Lee, Ph.D., Penn State Harrisburg; Julie Walter, Tri-county Community Action, Harrisburg
· Co-Investigators:, Jarl Ahlkvist, Ph.D. (PSU-UPark), Siyu Liu, Penn State Harrisburg
About the Project
· The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) awarded a subcontract to Penn State in the amount of $234,334 to support this project for the period May 2019 – April 2021.
· Testing the efficacy of the RISEUP program in reducing youth crime and violence in Uptown Harrisburg.
· Faculty release time funding was provided by the Justice Center.
Research Questions
· Does collaborative youth-adult RISEUP reduce crime and improve the public spaces where crime takes place in the Camp Curtin neighborhood?
· Does RISEUP improve youth deviancy and mental health outcomes?
· Does RISEUP increase collective efficacy and community cohesion?
Project Details
· Deliver BaSICS portion of RISEUP intervention to two consecutive cohorts of 6th graders at Camp Curtin Academy.
· Conduct CPTED portion of RISEUP with youth involvement from each cohort of youth as well as community members.
· Conduct baseline-pre-post-follow-up assessments via community surveys, youth surveys, and official police and school records.
· Analyze deviation from expected/predicted trajectories on adult and youth violent and non-violent crime, youth mental health and school problems such as truancy, community engagement, and collective efficacy.
Implications
· Equip middle school youth with effective skills and practices for coping with poverty-related stress (PRS) and trauma, including both individual and collective approaches.
· Reduction in youth and adult violent crimes and youth-police contacts.
· Engage the community in coordinated social action to identify, redesign, and revitalize public spaces where crime takes place.
· Increase collective efficacy and community cohesion via youth-integrated community social action.