An interdisciplinary, collaborative effort focusing on enhancing public safety
For more details and resources, visit our VIPR Lab website.
Recent or Ongoing Project Highlights:
At the American Society of Crminology conference (November 2021), Drs. Sadaf Hashimi, Jessica Huff, Erin Kearns and Justin Nix presented findings from 4 studies concerned with race, place, and policing.
What Does the Public Want Police to do During Pandemics?
Justin Nix, Ph.D. and colleagues surveyed a national sample of 1,068 US adults in April 2020 to determine the factors that shape support for various policing tactics in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Domestic Violence Help Seeking Before and During COVID-19
Justin Nix, Ph.D. and Tara Richards, Ph.D. examined longitudinal data on domestic violence (DV) calls to police and emergency hotlines before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess whether one, the other, both, or neither changed as a result of social distancing. Check out their presentation to the United Nations 65th Annual Commission on the Status of Women and their rapid report in the journal Police Practice and Research.
Sadaf Hashimi, Ph.D., is currently examining the dynamics of police use of force in New Jersey. Her research looks at the salience of officers' working relationships on facilitating use-of-force behaviors. By identifying structural and systematic patterns of relationships likely to lead to greater instances of police use of force, her research seeks important avenues for intervention policies that may enhance officer safety and accountability while improving police-civilian relations.
Gender, Personality and Career Motivation in Policing
Samantha Clinkinbeard, Ph.D., Starr Solomon, Ph.D (SCCJ alum) and Rachael Rief (SCCJ doctoral student) are examining motivations and personality characteristics associated with entry into, and persistence in, the field of policing and whether factors differ for males and females. Analysis for this project comes from surveys of current police officer and college students.
Women in Law Enforcement in Nebraska: Pathways to the Field and Experiences in It
Samantha Clinkinbeard, Ph.D. and Rachael Rief (SCCJ doctoral student) are using in-depth, qualitative interviews to explore women’s pathways into law enforcement; successes and challenges on the job, including current realities of the policing profession; and their thoughts on the recruitment, promotion, and retention of women. The hope is to provide insight into what motivates and keeps women in the field, as well as what challenges they face and how these are managed. Interviews are ongoing.
Willingness to Report Potential Suspicious Activity to Police
Building on her work about public willingness to report crime to police in general, Erin Kearns, Ph.D. is conducting a series of studies on willingness to report suspicious terrorism and targeted violence activity to authorities. She uses survey-embedded experiments to better understand which situations members of the public recognize as being suspicious, they knowledge on how to report those situations to law enforcement, and their willingness to do so.
Evaluating Current Threat Assessments and Threat Management
As part of the Department of Homeland Security project, Erin Kearns, Ph.D. and NCITE researchers are evaluating current terrorism and targeted violence threat assessment practices at the local and federal level. Dr. Kearns is leading part of the project focused on understanding current practices and identifying ways to improve communication and recognition of threats.
Terrorism? Hate Crime? Both? Neither?
Erin Kearns, Ph.D. and Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Ph.D. (University of Alabama) are working on a series of projects on the overlaps and distinguishing factors between terrorism and hate crimes. These studies use experimental methods to understand how members of the public label hypothetical incidents and the influence that these labels have on policy preferences to address these forms of violence.
Nationally acclaimed policing scholar Justin Nix, Ph.D. (right) reviews results of a policing study conducted with doctoral student Brandon Tregle (left).