Correctional psychology concerns the assessment and treatment of persons who commit crimes.
My research lab studies the assessment of risk for committing crimes in general, the assessment of other factors relevant to correctional rehabilitation, traditional rehabilitation services and novel solutions for reducing criminogenic risk, and potential stigma concerning persons who are involved with the criminal legal system.
My current directions within this research theme are as follows.
- The clinical utility of incorporating the self-perceptions of persons involved with the criminal legal system and digital technologies into correctional human services, including the development of the latter.
- The interpretability of measures of developmental maturity and criminal sophistication, as used in evaluations of youth involved with the juvenile legal system, by examining the comparative performance of young adults involved with the criminal legal system on these measures.
- Validation of theories underlying correctional human service principles.
I also have professional interests in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and supervise a theory- and evidence-informed DBT training clinic that provides skills training to persons involved with the criminal legal system undergoing reentry back to the community. In addition to quality improvement activities, program evaluation work is ongoing.
Recent representative publications
King, C. M., Vora, S., Gabriel, E., Ossai, C., & Osher, F. (in press). Intercept 4: Reentry from jails and prisons. In P. Griffin, K. Heilbrun, E. Mulvey, D. DeMatteo, & C. Schubert (Eds.), Criminal justice and mental illness: Promoting community alternatives using the Sequential Intercept Model (2nd ed). Oxford University Press.
King, C. M., Vora S., Cuellar, S., Gonzales, J., & Rosenfeld, B. (2026). An intervention for community reentry informed by Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In K. Heilbrun & D. DeMatteo (Eds.), The path forward: Psychological services in the community with justice-involved individuals and to forensic systems. Oxford University Press.
Vora, S., LaDuke, C., & King, C. M. (2025). A secondary data analysis of traumatic brain injury, criminogenic risk factors, and recidivism in a correctional reentry sample. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 24(3), 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/14999013251341904
Diehl, K. J., Morgan, R. D., King, C. M., & Ingram, P. B. (2024). Reception to and efficacy of a serious video game for correctional intervention: Project Choices. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 51(11), 1635–1653. https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548241268043
King, C. M., & Stettler, B. (2023). Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model. In R. Roesch (Vol. Ed.), Psychology and law, a volume of Routledge encyclopedia of psychology in the real world. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367198459-reprw248-1
King, C. M., Grove, L., Bomysoad, R., & Gonzalez, K. (2022). Assessment and intervention technologies in juvenile justice. In G. Liell, L. Jones, & M. Fisher (Eds.), Challenging bias in forensic psychological assessment and testing (pp. 158–175). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003230977-10
Grove, L., King, C. M., Bomysoad, R., Vasquez, L., & Kois, L. E. (2021). Technology for assessment and treatment of justice-involved youth: A systematic literature review. Law and Human Behavior, 45(5), 413–426. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-09218-003
King, C. M., & Heilbrun, K. (2021). Effects of criminogenic risk–needs assessment feedback during pre-release correctional rehabilitation. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 48(5), 575–595. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854820968604
