Ten Recipients Receive Fellowships From the National Institute of Justice

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) today named recipients of three fellowship programs: Visiting Fellows, Graduate Research Fellows, and W.E.B. Du Bois Fellows.  These programs help NIJ strengthen criminal justice research and give emerging scholars the opportunity to expose their work to a wider audience.  

"These award recipients are outstanding scholars, students, and researchers who contribute to critical and innovative thinking on crime and justice policy and practice," said John Laub, Director of the National Institute of Justice.  "I look forward to the progress and results related to having these talented individuals working to further NIJ's mission in criminal justice research."

NIJ Visiting Fellows are scholars and professionals who currently work in the criminal justice field.  This year, Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California - Los Angeles was selected for a Visiting Fellowship.  He will focus on the relationship of drug abuse and drug abuse policy to crime and crime control policy and plans to complete a book-length manuscript on the topic.

James Doyle, counsel for Boston law firm Carney and Bassil, was also selected for a Visiting Fellowship award.  He will examine the utility of the "organizational accident" model for understanding and avoiding system-level errors in criminal justice.  The model was previously successful in anticipating and managing errors in hospitals and in the aviation industry.

The Graduate Research Fellowship recipients are promising doctoral students whose dissertation prospectuses demonstrate independent and original research that have direct implications for criminal justice in the United States. This year's recipients are:

• Katherine Butler, "Ancestry/Phenotype SNP Analysis and Integration with Established Forensic Markers." Ph.D. expected January 2013, George Washington University. Chair: Dr. Daniele Podini.  
• Jaime Henderson, "SORNA's Potential Effects on the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice System." Ph.D. expected May 2012, Temple University. Chair: Dr. Philip W. Harris.
• Kevin Legg, "The Development and Testing of a Rapid Multiplex Assay for Identification of Biological Stains." Ph.D. expected December 2012, University of Denver. Chair: Dr. Phillip B. Danielson.
• Bradley R. Patterson, Advancing the Use of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curves to Measure Performance of Forensic Methods." Ph.D. expected May 2012, George Mason University. Chair: Dr. John J. Miller.
• David Pyrooz. "The Long-Term Consequences of Gang Membership." Ph.D. expected May 2012, Arizona State University. Chair: Dr. Scott Decker.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship recipients are researchers, early in their academic careers, whose research places emphasis on crime, violence and the administration of justice in diverse cultural contexts.  This year's W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship recipients are:

• Bianca Bersani, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Stephanie DiPietro, Ph.D., Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri St. Louis.  "An Examination of the 'Marriage Effect' on Desistance from Crime among U.S. Immigrants."
• Ojmarrh Mitchell, Ph.D., Department of Criminology, University of South Florida.  "Race and Drug Arrests: Specific Deterrence and Collateral Consequences."

Learn more about NIJ's Fellowships at: http://www.nij.gov/funding/fellowships/welcome.htm

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. Robinson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims.  OJP has six components: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking.  More information about OJP can be found at http://www.ojp.gov.

SOURCE The Office of Justice Programs