We all want Texas kids to have a bright future, but Texas is consistently ranked in the bottom ten states for child well-being. Texas decision makers must create policies that improve conditions for all Texas kids and put them on the road to success. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Texas ranks 43rd in overall child well-being (based on…

Incidences and severity of child abuse have increased since the start of the recession. This study examined the relationship between employment status and severity of symptoms in children abused during a recession year. Participants included 154 females and 65 males between 2 and 17 years old referred to Dallas Children's Advocacy Center after…

This study identified predictors of transience among homeless emerging adults in three cities. A total of 601 homeless emerging adults from Los Angeles, Austin, and Denver were recruited using purposive sampling. Ordinary least squares regression results revealed that significant predictors of greater transience include White ethnicity, high…

School personnel, particularly educators and school psychologists, are a first line of defense in protecting children from abuse. Teachers play an important role in the detection and reporting of child abuse. The relationship established between teachers and their students can facilitate the identification of child abuse. By virtue of their work,…

The objectives of this study were to examine racial and ethnic disparities in perpetrator and incident characteristics and discrepancies between police charges and reported perpetrator behaviors in police-reported intimate partner violence (IPV). This cross-sectional study used standardized police data and victim narratives of IPV incidents…

This study identified selected child factors (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, disabilities, prior victimization, and relationship to perpetrator of abuse), family risk factors (e.g., substance abuse, domestic violence, inadequate housing, and financial problems), and services provided by child protective services that likely increased reports…

Prior research on violent crime by female offenders is reviewed. A Texas female prisoner sample is used to explore specific questions raised by the literature review. Violent and nonviolent offenders were compared, looking specifically at race, socioeconomic status, having been raised in single-parent homes, criminal history, gang membership,…

Drawing from past research on women's motives for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, correlates of women's perpetration, and correlates of nonviolent conflict, we created a scale containing 125 possible motives, representing 14 broad domains (e.g., self-defense, retaliation). Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of women who…