Dr. Myrstol and Dr. Wood interviewed for Alaska Dispatch article on "Alaska's failed war on booze"

Dr. Brad Myrstol, Justice faculty and director of the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center, and Dr. Darryl Wood, Justice affiliate faculty, Washington State University Vancouver, were interviewed for the Alaska Dispatch article by Craig Medred, "Perils of Prohibition: Alaska's failed war on booze," posted online on September 4.

Dr. Myrstol discussed his research on "The Alcohol-Related Workload of Patrol Officers" which examined police perceptions of time-spent on alcohol-related incidents and actual time spent on those incidents.  Dr. Wood described his studies on on alcohol prohibitions in rural Alaska and their outcomes, and noted that there was not a long enough follow-up period on the alcohol interdiction project which he studied to determine if it had had an effect.

Both faculty members point out that other factors, not just alcohol, need to be examined when researching the problems in rural areas of Alaska.

Research by Dr. Myrstol and Dr. Wood on the issue of alcohol includes:

Drug and Alcohol-Related Workload of Anchorage Patrol Officers: Results From Two Patrol Officer Surveys by Brad A. Myrstol, N. E. Schafer, and Matthew J. Giblin (2003).
The Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS): A Study of the Intersection of Public Alcohol Use and Routine Police Patrol by Brad A. Myrstol and Robert H. Langworthy (2004).
Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS), Phase II: A Description of the Beliefs, Perceptions and Attitudes of Anchorage Police Department Employees by Brad A. Myrstol and Robert H. Langworthy (2005).
"Measures of Outcomes Associated With Alcohol Abuse in Alaska" by Darryl S. Wood, Alaska Justice Forum 21(1) (Spring 2004).
"Local Alcohol Prohibition, Police Presence and Serious Injury in Isolated Alaska Native Villages" By Darryl S. Wood and Paul J. Gruenewald, Addiction 101: 393-403 (Mar 2006). (Contact Dr. Wood for a copy of the report - darrylwood@vancouver.wsu.edu)
Evaluation of the Rural Alaska Alcohol Interdiction, Investigation, and Prosecution Program by Michael Shively, Darryl Wood,  Lauren Olsho, William Rhodes, and Meg Chapman (2009).

Justice Center affiliate faculty Dr. Wood interviewed by Anchorage Daily News about village public safety officers

Dr. Darryl Wood, Justice Center affiliate faculty, and faculty at Washington State University Vancouver, was interviewed for the recent Anchorage Daily News article, "Officials eye new ways to add to safety officers." The article by Becky Bohrer, published in hard copy February 11 and online February 15, discusses Governor Parnell's efforts to increase safety in rural Alaska, and looks at some of the issues involving recruitment and retention of Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs).

Dr. Wood has researched a number of aspects of the VPSO program.  His work includes includes:

•  "Police Presence, Isolation, and Sexual Assault Prosecution." Criminal Justice Policy Review, 22(3), 330-349. Darryl S. Wood, André B. Rosay, Greg Postle, and Katherine TePas. (2011)
• "Alcohol Availability, Police Presence and Serious Injury in Isolated Alaska Native Villages." Darryl S. Wood and Paul J. Gruenewald. Addiction,101, 393-403. (2006)
•  "Officer Turnover in the Village Public Safety Officer Program."   Alaska Justice Forum, 17(2). Darryl S. Wood. (2000).
• Turnover Among Alaska Village Public Safety Officers: An Examination of the Factors Associated With Attrition. Darryl S. Wood. (2000).

For a copy of the research above, you can also contact Dr. Wood at darrylwood@wsu.edu

Justice Center faculty present at American Society of Criminology annual meeting in Chicago, November 2012

Justice Center faculty will be presenting at the 2012 American Society of Criminology annual meeting in Chicago, November 14-17.  The theme for the 2012 event is "Thinking about Context: Challenges for Crime and Justice."

The American Society of Criminology is an international organization whose members pursue scholarly, scientific, and professional knowledge concerning the measurement, etiology, consequences, prevention, control, and treatment of crime and delinquency. 

Thematic Panel: "Patterns of Violence Against Women in Alaska: Estimates, Correlates, and Batterer Interventions" 

Dr. André Rosay, Justice Center Director, Chair. This panel presents results from Alaskan studies designed as robust replications of two significant Outside studies.

"Estimates of Violence Against Women from the Alaska Victimization Survey"
Dr. André Rosay; Dr. Brad Myrstol, Justice faculty; and Katherine TePas, Office of the Governor, State of Alaska

"Health Correlates of Violence Against Women: Results from the Alaska Victimization Survey"
Dr. Marny Rivera, Dr. André Rosay, Justice Center; Dr. Gabriel Garcia, UAA Department of Health Sciences faculty; Katherine TePas, Office of the Governor, State of Alaska

"Rural and Urban Differences in Intimate Partner Violence: Estimates from the Alaska Victimization Survey"
Dr. Darryl Wood, Justice affiliate faculty, Washington State University - Vancouver; Dr. André Rosay; Katherine TePas, Office of the Governor, State of Alaska

"Evaluation of Fairbanks Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Pilot Project: Preliminary Results and Their Policy Implications"
Dr. Cory R. Lepage, Justice faculty

Thematic Panel: "Crime and Place: Examining Chronic Nuisance Regulations"

"Is Knowing Half the Battle? Improving Place Management through Chronic Nuisance Notification"
Dr. Troy Payne, Justice faculty, and Michele Arneson, Crime Analyst, Green Bay, Wisconsin Police Department
 

Poster Session

"Predicting the Location of New Homeless Encampments"
Dr. Sharon Chamard, Justice faculty

Dr. Rosay participates in national symposium on policing in northern and remote Canada

L to r: Alaska State Troopers Colonel Keith Mallard, Dr. Rosay, Alaska Senior Policy Advisor Katie Tepas,
and Alaska Commissioner of Public Safety Joe Masters.  Not pictured Dr. Darryl Wood.

Dr. André Rosay, Justice Center Professor, participated in a 2-day "Policing in Northern and Remote Canada" symposium, September 19 and 20,  in Whitehorse, Yukon, with Alaska Commissioner of Public Safety Joe Masters, Alaska State Troopers Colonel Keith Mallard, and Katie TePas, State of Alaska Senior Policy Advisor and Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Initiative Coordinator.

The Alaska public safety officials discussed the  "The Alaska Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) Program," and Dr. Rosay was a member of the panel.

Justice Center affiliate faculty member, Dr. Darryl Wood of Washington State University Vancouver, was a co-panelist with Katie TePas for a discussion on "The Dynamics of Justice in Northern and Remote Communities: A Research and Policy Perspective."

The goal of the symposium was to help "identify gaps and priorities for policing in northern and remote communities where many unique challenges exist." A Canadian national research agenda on policing in these areas will be developed based on the perspectives and information presented at the conference. Click here for details on the event.


The event was hosted by the Government of the Yukon in partnership with the Council of Yukon First Nations, the Northern Institute of Social Justice, Government of the Northwest Territories, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) M Division and National Headquarters, and Public Safety Canada.

Map of the Canadian North.

Dr. Rosay invited to participate in NIJ research workshop in Washington, D.C.

Dr. André Rosay, Justice Center Director, has been invited to participate in a research workshop with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) on March 1, 2012 in Washington, D.C. to provide feedback on its program of research on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women. 

The workshop brings together NIJ representatives, its federal partners, stakeholders, and prominent researchers and experts in the areas of violence against women, American Indian and Alaska Native research and evaluation, research methods in Indian Country, and public health and public safety issues in Indian Country.  Workshop participants will discuss the scientific results of NIJ’s Violence Against Indian Women (VAIW) pilot study conducted in late 2011 and early 2012.

Justice Center Affiliate Professor Darryl Wood was also invited to participate.

Justice Center research cited in Alaska Dispatch article

The online newspaper, Alaska Dispatch, cited Justice Center research on sexual assaults in a December 6, 2010 online article, "Feds fighting sex abuse cycle in rural Alaska." Reporter Craig Medred cited data from the 2008 Spring/Summer issue of the Alaska Justice Forum, "Sexual Assaults Reported to Alaska State Troopers," co-authored by André B. Rosay, Greg Postle, Darryl S. Wood, and Katherine TePas. The Forum article reviewed data from a Justice Center report examining sexual assaults reported to Alaska State Troopers in 2003-2004 in Alaska's smaller communities.

Justice faculty present at American Society of Criminology conference

Dr. Darryl Wood and Dr. Marny Rivera

Dr. Marny Rivera, Justice faculty, and Dr. Darryl Wood, Justice affiliate faculty, presented a poster session on the "Alaska Victimization Survey: From Research to Policy and Practice" at the November 2010 American Society of Criminology conference in San Francisco.

Co-authors for the poster presentation are André Rosay, Justice Center; Katherine TePas, Alaska Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Response Coordinator; Darryl S. Wood, Washington State University Vancouver; and Marny Rivera and Brad Myrstol, Justice Center.

The Alaska Victimization Survey provides the first definitive measures of the incidence and prevalence of violence against women in Alaska.

Justice Center welcomes new affiliate faculty member – Dr. Darryl Wood

Dr. Darryl Wood, Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Washington State University Vancouver, has recently been appointed an affiliate faculty member of the Justice Center. He served on the Justice Center faculty from 1995 to 2007 prior to his move to Washington, and he has been co-author of a number of Justice Center research reports and Alaska Justice Forum articles. While at the Justice Center, he completed the first comprehensive study of turnover in the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) program in the largely Alaska Native villages of rural Alaska.

Dr. Wood has conducted research both at the Justice Center and at Washington State University Vancouver on alcohol consumption and prohibition, crime, and policing in the indigenous communities of Alaska and the Canadian Arctic, and on violence against women in rural and urban Alaska. He received his Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University.

Article by Justice Center authors selected for Criminal Justice Policy Review

Dr. Darryl Wood, former Justice faculty now Assistant Professor with Washington State University, Vancouver; Dr. André Rosay, Justice Center Director; Greg Postle, graduate student at the University of Delaware; and Katherine TePas, State of Alaska Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coordinator, are the authors of the article, "Police Presence, Isolation, and Sexual Assault Prosecution," recently published in the Criminal Justice Policy Review.

The article considers the effects of geographic isolation and local police presence on the processing of 230 sexual assault cases reported to Alaska State Troopers. Policing in rural areas throughout the United States is hindered by geographic isolation. In Alaska, this hindrance is often severe. The authors examined how the Village Public Safety Officer program provides an effective solution to policing in rural areas - areas that lack the resources to have their own policing. Findings show that Village Public Safety Officers facilitate case processing by enhancing the likelihood that referred cases would be accepted for prosecution. However, after accounting for other potential influences, isolation did not impact the likelihood of prosecution. These results provide strong support for the Village Public Safety Officer program and have important implications for all rural areas in the United States.

Criminal Justice Policy Review is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal committed to the study of criminal justice policy through quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methodological approaches. The Review is published quarterly.

DV Study by Dr. Rivera cited by Alaska Attorney General's Office

A domestic violence study by Dr. Marny Rivera, Justice faculty, was cited by the Alaska Attorney General's office in a brief for a case on appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court, State of Alaska v. Robert Duane Gibson, III.

The study, "Assaults in Domestic Violence Incidents Reported to Alaska State Troopers," appears in the Fall 2008, Vol. 25, No. 3 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum. The article was co-authored by André Rosay, Justice Center Director; Darryl S. Wood; Greg Postle; and Katherine TePas.

Fall 2009 issue of Alaska Justice Forum

The Fall 2009 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum focuses on domestic violence assaults, reducing violence against women in Alaska, the relationship between animal abuse and domestic violence, and leading causes of death in Alaska and the U.S.

The 12-page issue includes the following articles:

"Predicting Legal Resolutions in Domestic Violence Cases" by Marny Rivera, André B. Rosay, Darryl S. Wood, and Katherine TePas

This article discusses characteristics of assaults in domestic violence incidents reported to Alaska State Troopers — reports, suspects, victims, victim-suspect relationships, and incidents — and the degree to which they influenced prosecution of domestic violence cases. Characteristics that predicted prosecution generally included the following: severity of the incident or corroboration of the victims’ description of events, thorough investigation and/or interrogation practices, intimate partner relationship between victim and suspect, and the incident occurring in an area with a VPSO or VPO program. Characteristics that significantly predicted prosecution can be used as the basis for modifications in policy and/or practice to enhance prosecution of domestic violence cases in Alaska.

"Attrition in Cases of Violence Against Women Reported to the Alaska State Troopers" by Darryl S. Wood, André B. Rosay, Marny Rivera, and Katherine TePas

The Alaska statutory requirement that arrests be made for all crimes involving domestic violence is rooted in research that suggests mandatory arrest has a specific deterrent effect in cases of misdemeanor assault committed by males against their female intimate partners. In this article we consider police, prosecutor, and court decision-making about intimate partner violence (IPV) cases initially dealt with by the Alaska State Troopers in 2004. The results presented allow us to consider the attrition of cases of IPV assault reported to the Troopers and prosecuted by the Alaska Department of Law. Although Alaska’s mandatory arrest law is the only policy specifically requiring official response to IPV cases, it appears that the law’s spirit of full enforcement guided other decisions regarding IPV cases as they continued through the criminal justice process in 2004. While attrition still occurred, it happened at a rate that was substantially less than what has been found outside of Alaska, indicating that IPV is taken seriously in rural Alaska. This appears to be as true for Alaska Native victims as it is for non-Native victims and it does not seem to be affected by the difficulties of travel to conduct investigations.

"Reducing Violence Against Women in Alaska"

Alaska has long been plagued by high rates of violence against women. Relative to the average U.S. rate of forcible rapes reported to law enforcement from 2003 to 2008, the average Alaska rate was 2.6 times higher, the average Anchorage rate was 2.9 times higher, and the average Fairbanks rate was 5.0 times higher. Alaska has the highest rate of forcible rape reported to law enforcement out of all U.S states. This article summarizes recent recommendations from the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee and from Governor Sean Parnell to reduce violence against women in Alaska.

"Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence"

Animal abuse is one factor in the dynamic of intimate partner violence, and can be used by law enforcement and domestic violence advocates in assessing risk. Studies have documented high rates of pet ownership by domestic violence victims in shelters, a substantial rate of children’s exposure to pet abuse, and clear indications that domestic violence victims’ concern for pets affect decisions to stay in or leave relationships with batterers. This article describes efforts to address some of these issues, including some in Alaska. A bibliography of further reading on animal abuse and domestic violence is included.

"Leading Causes of Death"

This article details recent data about leading causes of death for Alaska and the U.S. Diseases of the body, particularly malignant neoplasms (cancer) and heart disease, continue to rank among the leading causes of death for the overall population; however, suicide and homicide rank among the top five causes of death in Alaska for age groups up to age 44.

"Visiting Faculty"

Announcing the visit of Dr. Adrienne Freng of University of Wyoming as visiting faculty for the Spring 2010 semester.

Justice Center concludes Group-Based Models Workshop

Dr. Daniel S. Nagin, Professor of Public Policy and Statistics at Carnegie Mellon Heinz College, concluded today his presentation of a 3-day workshop on group-based models for analyzing developmental trajectories. This invitation-only intensive program held July 7, 8, and 9 for social behavioral science researchers was hosted by the Justice Center and trained participants to use group-based models in a variety of health and social welfare disciplines. These models can describe, summarize, and analyze individual and environmental changes over time. Dr. Nagin is an internationally known expert in this field and has published extensively on group-based models.

Workshop participants are pictured here, back row, left to right: Dr. Adrienne Freng, Associate Professor, Dept. of Criminal Justice, University of Wyoming; Dr. Brad Myrstol, Assistant Professor, UAA Justice Center; Alan McKelvie, Director, Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center; Dr. Darryl Wood, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Political Science & Criminal Justice, Washington State University, Vancouver; Gregory Matt Snodgrass, Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon Heinz College.

Front row, left to right: Dr. Daniel Nagin, workshop presenter, Teresa and John Heinz III University Professor of Public Policy and Statistics, Carnegie Mellon Heinz College; Dr. Marny Rivera, Assistant Professor, UAA Justice Center; Dr. David Driscoll, Director, UAA Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies. Not pictured, Dr. André Rosay, Director, UAA Justice Center.

New publication: Alaska Justice Forum Reprints

The Justice Center has launched a new series of publications, Alaska Justice Forum Reprints. Selected articles originally published in the Alaska Justice Forum will appear as single reprints.

There are currently four reprints available, all dealing with violence against women issues:

• "Case Attrition of Sexual Violence Offenses: Empirical Findings" by Darryl S. Wood and André B. Rosay
• "Sexual Assaults Reported to Alaska State Troopers" André B. Rosay, Greg Postle, Darryl S. Wood, and Katherine TePas
• "Stalking in Alaska" André B. Rosay, Greg Postle, Katherine TePas, and Darryl Wood
• "Assaults in Domestic Violence Incidents Reported to Alaska State Troopers" Marny Rivera, André B. Rosay, Darryl S. Wood, Greg Postle, and Katherine TePas

Additional reprints are in preparation, and will be available soon.