Wondering what we’re working on in the Lab?
Check out some of the VVSRL’s current projects below. You’ll find brief descriptions and links to funding sources and project deliverables.
Strengths, Needs, and Partnerships regarding Nebraska Indian Community College’s Response to Gender-Based Violence and Victimization
This National Institute of Justice funded project (15PNIJ-21-GG-02809-RESS) supports a new partnership between Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) and UNO researcher Tara Richards, Ph.D. (PI) and doctoral student research assistants Sheena Gilbert and Alvi Ali as well as Emily Wright, Ph.D. (Co-I, Urban Institute). Consistent with a community-based participatory approach, this project will first establish a NICC Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Advisory Board with representation from NICC community members (i.e., students, staff, and faculty). The GBV Advisory Board will work collaboratively with UNO/Urban Institute researchers to (1) complete an organizational assessment of NICC’s strengths and needs for the prevention of and response to GBV on campus and among NICC community members, (2) identify areas for new partnerships or where partnerships may be strengthened to increase service capacity for GBV among NICC community members, and (3) develop a culturally centered campus climate survey instrument to assess NICC community members’ experiences with, knowledge of, and access to resources regarding GBV.
Findings from the proposed project will support policy and procedural changes regarding NICC’s response to its community members’ health, wellbeing, and GBV experiences; the culturally centered campus climate survey will be available for NICC to identify areas of need and create necessary changes. This collaboration will also provide a replicable model for other tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) that are interested in enhancing prevention and intervention efforts for GBV among their own stakeholders.
An Evaluability Assessment for Seattle Municipal Court’s Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP)
This Office on Violence Against Women funded project (15JOVW-21-GG-02488-MUMU) supports a formative evaluation and evaluability assessment of a novel approach to domestic violence intervention treatment in Seattle, Washington: The Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP). The project team includes Tara Richards, Ph.D. (PI) and doctoral research assistant, Alyssa Nystrom as well as Co-Investigator, Dr. Emily Wright, of the Urban Institute. While the DVIP is founded in Evidenced Based Principles, before determining whether the DVIP model is “effective,” we must determine how well it is being implemented and how evaluable it is. As such, in this formative evaluation and evaluability assessment we will examine: (1) the extent to which the program theory aligns with the program implemented, (2) the likelihood the program will produce positive results as currently applied, and (3) the feasibility of outcome evaluations as currently designed.
Identifying the Scope and Context of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) in New Mexico and Improving MMIP Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting
This National Institute of Justice funded-project (15PNIJ-22-GG-01625-REVA) supports a collaboration between the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs (IAD) and the New Mexico Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives Task Force and researchers at UNO. Co-Investigators include UNO’s Tara Richards, Ph.D. and Urban Institute’s Emily Wright, Ph.D. with UNO doctoral student, Sheena Gilbert and Alvi Ali, assisting on the project. Melody Delmar is the special project coordinator at IAD. This new collaboration is a replication and extension of Richards and Wright’s 2019 NIJ tribal-researcher capacity-building partnership project (Grant ID 2019-75-CX-0014), which conducted a pilot study on the scope of missing and murdered Native persons in Nebraska and provided a replicable model for other states to employ. The present study aims to address two broad goals: 1) to use the “Nebraska Model” developed in the pilot study to examine the scope and context of MMIP in New Mexico and 2) to extend prior research by identifying gaps in current data collection and provide recommendations for improving long-term data collection and sustainable data reporting for cases of MMIP in New Mexico.
OPD-UNO Collaboration for the Prevention and Intervention of Human Trafficking against Children in Omaha
In 2017, the Omaha Police Department (OPD) Special Victims Unit took the innovative step of collecting data on children who were identified as missing with the aim of better understanding pathways to victimization, including human trafficking, and connecting children to needed services. In 2022, Teresa Kulig, Ph.D. and Tara Richards, Ph.D. along with SCCJ Ph.D. student Michaela Goldsmith, received funding from the Great Plains IDeA-CTR Community Engagement grant program to support a new collaboration with OPD’s Special Victims Unit in this endeavor. The current project seeks to fill a critical information gap in our understanding of the risk and protective factors for human trafficking victimization among children who are missing/run away, as well as how and when interventions should be implemented. The ultimate goal of this project is to advance our understanding regarding prevention of human trafficking in this understudied yet vulnerable group.
Minnesota Sexual Assault Kit Research Project
This National Institute of Justice funded-project (NIJ 2019-MU-MU-0095) supports a collaboration between the Minnesota Office of Justice Programs, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, Alexandra House (a victim service provider), the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (the statewide coalition of sexual assault programs), and researchers at UNO and University of Louisville (UNL). Investigators include UNO’s Tara Richards, Ph.D., Emily Wright, Ph.D., and Justin Nix, Ph.D. as well as UNL’s Bradley Campbell, Ph.D. Doctoral student research assistants, Caralin Branscum and Emily Meinert are assisting on the project. This researcher-practitioner partnership aims to examine the processes, outcomes, and cost-benefit of the MN Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Project.
Supportive Services Model for Batterer Intervention
This Office on Violence Against Women funded-project (OVW-2019-SI-AX-0002) assesses whether supportive services for common psychosocial problems (e.g., unemployment, mental health problems, substance abuse, and parenting issues) provided by community partners on site at a batterer program – Baltimore, Maryland’s House of Ruth’s Gateway Project – can reduce violent and non-violent criminal re-offending in a high-risk urban sample. Investigators include an inter-university and interdisciplinary team from public health: Charvonne Holiday, Ph.D. (JHU), psychology: Christopher Murphy, Ph.D. (UMBC), and criminology: Tara Richards, Ph.D. (UNO). Community Partners from Baltimore, Maryland’s House of Ruth’s Gateway Project include Ange Manning-Green and Lisa Nitsch.
Intimate Partner Cyber Abuse (IPCA)
This project involves the exploration of the prevalence, incidence, and prevention of intimate partner cyber abuse (IPCA). The primary investigators include Leah C. Butler, PhD (UNO), Erica R. Fissel, PhD (University of Central Florida) and Bonnie Sue Fisher, PhD (University of Cincinnati). The research team has developed a new survey instrument to measure the prevalence of IPCA victimization and published research demonstrating the validity and reliability of the measure (Fissel et al., 2021). Upcoming research from the project will present overall IPCA prevalence rates and risk factors from a national sample and will analyze qualitative data to explore the normalization of IPCA behaviors in intimate relationships. UNO SCCJ doctoral student, Brian Gildea, is working with the research team to conduct a study of IPCA victimization among LGBTQ+ individuals and to examine variation in prevalence rates across different types of intimate relationships.
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