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Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach (2013)

Chapter: Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
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Appendix D

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

Robert L. Johnson (Chair) is the Sharon and Joseph L. Muscarelle endowed dean, professor of pediatrics, professor of psychiatry, and director of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the New Jersey Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). His research focuses on adolescent physical and mental health, adolescent HIV, adolescent violence, adolescent fatherhood, and risk prevention/reduction programs with specific emphasis on substance and alcohol abuse, sexuality and sexual dysfunction, male sexual abuse, suicide, and AIDS. He currently serves on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Council on Graduate Medical Education and chairs the Governor’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and Related Blood Borne Pathogens and the Newark Ryan White Planning Council. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has published widely and conducts an active schedule of teaching, research, and clinical practice at the New Jersey Medical School. He has an M.D. from the New Jersey Medical School of UMDNJ.

Richard J. Bonnie (Vice Chair) is the Harrison Foundation professor of medicine and law, professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences, professor of public policy, and director, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1991. He teaches and writes about criminal law, bioethics, and public policies relating to mental health, substance abuse, aging, and public health. He was associate director of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (1971-1973), secretary of the first National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (1975-1985), and chief advisor

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

for the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards Project (1981-1988). He currently chairs a Commission on Mental Health Law Reform at the request of the chief justice of Virginia. He has also served on the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Mental Health and the Law and a successor Network on Mandated Community Treatment and is currently participating in the foundation’s Project on Law and Neuroscience. He received the Yarmolinsky Medal in 2002 for his contributions to the IOM and the National Academies. In 2007, Bonnie received the University of Virginia’s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award. He has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an LL.B. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Carl C. Bell is clinical professor of psychiatry and public health and director of the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where the field of child psychiatry originated. He is president and chief executive officer of the Community Mental Health Council and Foundation, Inc., in Chicago. He is a former member of the National Institute of Mental Health’s National Mental Health Advisory Council and currently codirector of the UIC Interdisciplinary Violence Prevention Research Center. He received the E.Y. Williams Distinguished Senior Clinical Scholar Award of the National Medical Association’s section on psychiatry in 1992; the American Psychiatric Association President’s Commendation regarding violence in 1997; the Solomon Carter Fuller Award in 2011; the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Prevention in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2012; and the Special Presidential Commendation for outstanding advocacy for mental illness prevention and for person-centered mental health wellness and recovery in 2012. He is also a current and founding executive committee member of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Over 40 years, he has published numerous articles, chapters, and books on mental health. A 1967 graduate of UIC, he has an M.D. from Meharry Medical College. He completed a psychiatric residency in 1974 at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute/Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago.

Lawrence D. Bobo is the W.E.B. Du Bois professor of the social sciences at Harvard University. He holds appointments in the Department of Sociology and the Department of African and African American Studies. His research focuses on the intersection of social inequality, politics, and race and has appeared in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Psychology Quarterly, and Public Opinion Quarterly. He is the founding editor of the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race published by Cambridge University Press. His most recent book, Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Pub-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

lic Opinion, and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute, was a finalist for the 2007 C. Wright Mills Award. Bobo is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan.

Jeffrey A. Butts is executive director of the Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Previously, he was a research fellow with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, director of the Program on Youth Justice at the Urban Institute, and senior research associate at the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) in Pittsburgh. NCJJ is the national repository for state juvenile court records and is the main producer and analyzer of juvenile justice system statistics. His work focuses on research and evaluation projects designed to discover and improve policies and programs for at-risk and disconnected youth, especially those involved with the justice system. He has more than 25 years of experience in research, program evaluation, policy analysis, and direct services. He has authored two books, dozens of reports for the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies, and articles in such journals as the American Journal of Criminal Law, Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Judicature, Law & Policy, Juvenile and Family Court Journal, and Youth & Society. He began his career in 1980 as a drug and alcohol counselor with the juvenile court in Eugene, Oregon. He has a Ph.D. in sociology and social work from the University of Michigan.

Gladys Carrión is commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), which has oversight of child welfare, including child preventive and protective services, foster care, and adoption; manages the state’s juvenile justice system; and regulates and licenses child care. During Carrión’s tenure, OCFS has earned national recognition for her initiative to transform the juvenile justice system she inherited from a “custody and control” model with a reputation for using excessive force on children; no oversight and few resources; and an 89 percent recidivism rate, to an evidence-based, trauma-informed, community-centered therapeutic model with significantly better outcomes for children and for maintaining community safety. Carrión’s reform of New York’s juvenile justice system also has included the closing of 13 empty or underutilized, but fully staffed, residential centers in local counties. Other positions she has held include staff attorney at the Bronx Legal Services Corporation, commissioner of the New York City Community Development Agency, chair of the New York City School Chancellor’s Task Force on Latino Educational Opportunity,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

executive director of Family Dynamics, and program officer in community development at the Ford Foundation. She has a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

B.J. Casey is director of the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology and the Sackler professor of developmental psychobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. She has been examining the normal development of brain circuitry involved in attention and behavioral regulation and how disruptions in these brain systems give rise to a number of developmental disorders. Recently she has begun to examine the effects of gene-environment interactions in the development of affect and behavioral regulation and related brain systems, using both human and mouse genetics. She has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of South Carolina.

Betty M. Chemers (Study Director) is a senior project officer at the National Research Council. Previously, she held numerous positions at the U.S. Department of Justice, including director of the evaluation division of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and deputy administrator for discretionary programs at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, where she oversaw its research, demonstration, and training and technical assistance activities. Her nonfederal service includes directing the planning and policy analysis division of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and consulting on strategic planning, finance, and management issues with nonprofit organizations. She has an M.A. in history from Boston University and a B.A. in education/sociology from the University of Maryland.

Kenneth A. Dodge is the William McDougall professor of public policy and professor of psychology, social and health sciences, at Duke University. As the first director of the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke, he leads an effort to bridge basic scientific research in children’s development with public policy affecting children and families. His particular area of scholarship has addressed the development and prevention of chronic violence in children and adolescents. He is the recipient of a research scientist award from the National Institute of Mental Health as well as several awards from the American Psychological Association, including the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychopathology. He has conducted both laboratory and longitudinal studies of how chronic aggressive behavior develops across the life span. His work has identified early family experience factors (such as child physical abuse), peer relations factors, and social-cognitive patterns that serve as catalysts for aggressive behavioral development. With colleagues, he developed the Fast Track Program,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

a comprehensive effort to prevent the development of chronic violence in high-risk children. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from Duke University.

Sandra A. Graham is a professor and the Presidential Chair in Education and Diversity within the Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her major research interests include the study of academic motivation, peer aggression, and juvenile delinquency, particularly in African American children and adolescents. She has published widely in developmental, social, and educational psychology journals. She currently is principal investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is the recipient of an Independent Scientist Award, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and she is a former recipient of the Early Contribution Award from Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA). She was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. Among her professional activities, she is an associate editor of American Psychologist and a member of the advisory committee of the Minority Fellowship Program of APA. She previously served as a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice and the Governing Council of the Society for Research on Adolescence. She has a Ph.D. in education from UCLA.

Ernestine Gray is chief judge of the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court in New Orleans. She was elected in 1984 and has since been reelected to three full eight-year terms on that court. Previously, she was employed by the Baton Rouge Legal Aid Society, the attorney general of the state of Louisiana, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a trial attorney. Throughout her career, Gray has held leadership positions with children’s advocacy, judicial, and bar organizations. She is past president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the National CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) board of trustees. At National CASA, she serves on the Inclusion and Outreach, Education and Public Awareness, and Standards committees. She has a J.D. from Louisiana State University.

Edward P. Mulvey is professor of psychiatry and director of the Law and Psychiatry Program at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. His research has focused on issues related to how clinicians make judgments regarding the type of risk posed by adult mental patients and the development and treatment of serious juvenile offenders. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society, a recipient of a

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

faculty scholar’s award from the William T. Grant Foundation, a member of two MacArthur Foundation Research Networks (one on mental health and the law and another on adolescent development and juvenile justice), and a member of the Steering Committee of the National Consortium on Violence Research. He currently serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Office of Justice Programs of the U.S. Department of Justice. He has a Ph.D. in community/clinical psychology from the University of Virginia. He also did postdoctoral training in quantitative methods in criminal justice at Carnegie Mellon University.

Robert D. Plotnick is professor of public affairs and associate dean at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. He serves as an adjunct professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Economics and is a research affiliate with the West Coast Poverty Center and the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the university as well as the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin. He has written extensively on poverty, income inequality, nonmarital childbearing, income support policy, and related social policy issues in the United States. Previously, he served on the faculty at Bates College (1975-1977) and at Dartmouth College (1977-1984). He has been a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, Cornell University, the University of New South Wales, and the London School of Economics; he served as director of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology from 1997 to 2002. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Julie A. Schuck is a senior program associate with the National Research Council and has worked in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education for more than 10 years. She has provided analytical and editorial support for a number of projects and workshops, including those on improving undergraduate instruction in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; understanding the technical and privacy dimensions of information for terrorism prevention; employing the science of human-systems integration in home health care and mine safety; and strengthening the research program of the National Institute of Justice. Previously, she was a research support specialist at Cornell University. She has an M.S. in education from Cornell University and a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of California, San Diego.

Elizabeth S. Scott is the Harold R. Medina professor of law at Columbia University Law School. In 2007-2009, she served as the law school’s vice-dean. She teaches family law, property, criminal law, and children and the law. She has written extensively on marriage, divorce, cohabitation, child

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

custody, adolescent decision making, and juvenile delinquency. Her research is interdisciplinary, applying behavioral economics, social science research, and developmental theory to family/juvenile law and policy issues. Previously, she served as legal director of the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She is the founder and was co-director of the University of Virginia’s interdisciplinary Center for Children, Families and the Law. In 1995-2006, she was involved in empirical research on adolescents in the justice system as a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. In 2008, she published Rethinking Juvenile Justice with developmental psychologist Laurence Steinberg. She is also the coauthor of two casebooks on family law and children in the legal system. She has a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Terence P. Thornberry is a distinguished university professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. He was formerly director of the Problem Behavior Program at the Institute of Behavioral Science and professor of sociology at the University of Colorado (2004-2009) and prior to that held numerous positions at Albany, State University of New York (1984-2003). In 1995 he was elected a fellow of the American Society of Criminology and in 2008 he was the recipient of that society’s Edwin H. Sutherland Award. His research interests focus on understanding the development of delinquency and crime over the life course, the consequences of maltreatment, and intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior. He is the principal investigator of the Rochester Youth Development Study, a three-generation panel study begun in 1986 to examine the causes and consequences of delinquency and other forms of antisocial behaviors. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Cherie Townsend recently retired from public service after nearly 40 years as a juvenile justice practitioner and leader. Prior to her retirement, she served as the executive director of the newly created Texas Department of Juvenile Justice, which replaced the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. In 2008-2011, she served as executive director or executive commissioner of the Texas Youth Commission. In this position she oversaw the state-operated juvenile corrections system. Her responsibilities included leading more than 4,000 employees in a reform effort and daily operations of this system. Previously, she served as director of juvenile justice services in Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas), and as director of juvenile court services in Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix). In 2010, she was recognized for her leadership in juvenile justice by the Texas Corrections Association and by the Council of Juvenile Correctional

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×

Administrators. In 2003, she received the Juvenile Court Administrator Award from the National Juvenile Court Services Association and in 2001 the Sam Houston State University Award as the Outstanding Probation Executive. She has an M.P.A. from Southern Methodist University and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 435
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 436
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 437
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 438
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 439
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 440
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 441
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2013. Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14685.
×
Page 442
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Adolescence is a distinct, yet transient, period of development between childhood and adulthood characterized by increased experimentation and risk-taking, a tendency to discount long-term consequences, and heightened sensitivity to peers and other social influences. A key function of adolescence is developing an integrated sense of self, including individualization, separation from parents, and personal identity. Experimentation and novelty-seeking behavior, such as alcohol and drug use, unsafe sex, and reckless driving, are thought to serve a number of adaptive functions despite their risks.

Research indicates that for most youth, the period of risky experimentation does not extend beyond adolescence, ceasing as identity becomes settled with maturity. Much adolescent involvement in criminal activity is part of the normal developmental process of identity formation and most adolescents will mature out of these tendencies. Evidence of significant changes in brain structure and function during adolescence strongly suggests that these cognitive tendencies characteristic of adolescents are associated with biological immaturity of the brain and with an imbalance among developing brain systems. This imbalance model implies dual systems: one involved in cognitive and behavioral control and one involved in socio-emotional processes. Accordingly adolescents lack mature capacity for self-regulations because the brain system that influences pleasure-seeking and emotional reactivity develops more rapidly than the brain system that supports self-control. This knowledge of adolescent development has underscored important differences between adults and adolescents with direct bearing on the design and operation of the justice system, raising doubts about the core assumptions driving the criminalization of juvenile justice policy in the late decades of the 20th century.

It was in this context that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) asked the National Research Council to convene a committee to conduct a study of juvenile justice reform. The goal of Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach was to review recent advances in behavioral and neuroscience research and draw out the implications of this knowledge for juvenile justice reform, to assess the new generation of reform activities occurring in the United States, and to assess the performance of OJJDP in carrying out its statutory mission as well as its potential role in supporting scientifically based reform efforts.

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