The prosecution of child sexual abuse: A partnership to improve outcomes

Stephanie Block, Ph.D. is assistant professor at UMass Lowell in the psychology department and a collaborator with the JGBVR initiative. Dr. Block is Principal Investigator on this project and is responsible for the all aspects of the conduct and management of the project, accomplishment of goals and objectives, supervision of all project personnel, cooperation with NIJ, and administrative and financial compliance. She is also responsible for coordination with prosecutors’ offices and management of data collection efforts.Dr. Block works with community partners at 4 District Attorney’s offices with the goal of increasing access to justice for victims and identifying best practices for successful prosecution of perpetrators Block’s research has broadly focused on children in the legal system. Guided by a social-ecological perspective and interdisciplinary training, she conducts research that generates knowledge and informs public policy relevant to children in the child welfare and legal systems.

Linda M. Williams, Ph.D. is Co-Investigator on this project and works with Dr. Block and her team on data collection and management. Specifically her role is to serve as senior mentor on the project and she to provide a criminal justice perspective and, thus, contribute to the PIs skills and interest in developing and sustaining researcher-practitioner partnerships to provide sound knowledge to inform criminal justice practice and policy. The project and mentorship is designed to help to forge for the principal investigator a sustained pathway to ongoing research-practitioner relationships that will promote future research in line with issues relevant to the National Institute of Justice goals and priorities. The project is designed to facilitate the participation of legal practitioners and service providers in the interpretation of results and share responsibility for integrating findings into policy and planning next steps for research.
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