CECH Chats podcast speaks with professors and students involved in important criminal justice research

“We have students who are further along in different programs being able to provide mentorship and leadership to undergraduate researchers, master's students and first-year PhD students,” she explains. “But then also first-year PhD students being able to provide that mentorship for undergraduate and master's students.”

The research project last year was awarded a two-year research grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women. Since then Hayes — along with fellow criminal justice Associate Professor Ráchael Powers and communication sciences and disorders Associate Professor Amanda Simmons — have brought 12 students onto various stages of the project to provide experience-based learning in areas such as research and project management.

The students are:

• Cooper Maher – 4th year PhD
• Rebekkah Gross – 3rd yeard PhD
• Martha McCullough – 1 st year PhD
• Dani Gerving – 1st year PhD
• Kristonn Stubbs – 1st year PhD
• Hye Sun Choi – MA Student
• Mary Grady – Undergrad
• Linh Dieu – Undergrad
• Jacquie Burckley – PhD Student @ USF
• Kaitlyn Knific – Speech-Language Pathology master’s student
• Elizabeth Liming – Speech-Language Pathology master’s student
• Paige Heimbrock – Speech-Language Pathology master’s student

“This project is multifaceted,” explains Hayes. “We have a systematic review, which is just a fancy way of saying we are looking at the literature that's been done on reporting barriers for victims with disabilities and organizing it to look for themes within that research.

“We've also looked at policies on law enforcement and victim service agency websites across four states. And then our big, big, big heavy lift of the project was we conducted 152 interviews with practitioners, caregivers, and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

Students involved in the research project have been given responsibilities such as transcribing interviews and processing resulting data, through which they gain invaluable knowledge in areas of their research interests.