University of Arizona
College of Science - Psychology
Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology Program
Director, Psychology and Law Ph.D./J.D. Track
Director, Psychology Policy and Law Laboratory
Affiliated Faculty, Gender and Women's Studies and Family and Juvenile Law Certificate Program, James E. Rogers College of Law
Research Interests:
Identifying how family and juvenile court processes and procedures can better serve those involved with them (litigants and attorneys)
Understanding the needs of adult and child victims of domestic violence (aka intimate partner violence) (assessment, treatment, legal issues)
Understanding the needs of traumatized children involved in the legal system (dependency court, family court, attorneys for children)
Investigating an intervention for youth charged with domestic violence against a caregiver.
My research interests focus broadly on how the legal system can be adjusted to minimize psychological distress for those who use it. I have investigated short- and long-term outcomes for divorcing couples experiencing intimate partner violence and mediating their disputes and investigated the effectiveness of parenting coordinator programs for high conflict families involved in family courts.
Working with colleagues at Indiana University, I recently developed an assessment instrument for assessing intimate partner violence in the mediation context. With my graduate students, my research is now moving toward issues related to traumatized children involved in the legal system (including foster care and attorney representation of these children), an intervention for youth charged with domestic violence against a caregiver, and the successes and failures of the involuntary civil commitment process.
