Tag: Dr. King activity

bookmark_borderRachel Bomysoad, Dr. King, and other former members of the lab published a new article

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

Rachel Bomysoad, Dr. King, and former lab members Jill Del Pozzo, Sarah Hitchcock, Loumarie Vasquez, and Ivysmeralys Morales published a new article, “University Students’ Mental Health Services Need and Utilization, Telemental Health Awareness, and Barriers to Seeking Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” in the Journal of College Student Mental Health.

The abstract reads:

Telemental health services have become more pressing for higher education students since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of that need, and barriers to accessing care, remain uncertain – including demographic inequities. Between June 2020 and December 2021, public university students (N = 1441) were surveyed about demographic factors, history of mental healthcare, telemental health awareness, and perceived pandemic-time mental healthcare needs and barriers. Approximately one-third of the sample reported feeling an increased unmet need for mental health services, with connection to services being predicted by semester cohort, neighborhood income level, mental healthcare history, and level of telemental health awareness. A variety of barriers to seeking care were endorsed by a minority of participants. Results can inform outreach and capacity efforts in the post-vaccines era to improve access to care – including telemental healthcare – for historically marginalized groups, poorer students, and those unfamiliar with mental health services.

This project was originally conceived by Dr. Del Pozzo circa the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

bookmark_borderDr. King and several lab members published a new book chapter

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

Dr. King and several lab members—Lauren Grove, Sana Vora, and Kenny Gonzalez—have published a book chapter, Assessment and intervention technologies in juvenile justice, in the newly released book, Challenging bias in forensic psychological assessment and testing, edited by Glenda C. Liell, Martin J. Fisher, Lawrence F. Jones, and published by Routledge.

The chapter serves as a companion piece to the systematic review conducted by Lauren Grove, Dr. King, lab member Rachel Bomysoad, former lab member Loumarie Vasquez, and Dr. King’s colleague at the University of Alabama, Dr. Lauren Kois, Technology for assessment and treatment of justice-involved youth: A systematic literature review, published in the journal Law and Human Behavior.

bookmark_borderDr. King and two lab members published a new book chapter

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

Dr. King, his colleague at the University of Virginia, Dr. Shannon Kelley, and two lab members, Lauren Grove and Brooke Stettler, have published a book chapter, An American perspective, in the newly released book, Safeguarding the quality of forensic assessment in sentencing: A review across western nations, edited by Professor Michiel Van der Wolf and published by Routledge.

The chapter reviews the law and practice of forensic mental health health assessments for adult sentencing, juvenile disposition, insanity acquittal commitment, and sexually dangerous person commitment in the United States, for an international comparative volume.

bookmark_borderDr. King completed his tenure as editor of the AP-LS News Legal Update column

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

After five years of having served as editor of the AP-LS News Legal Update column, Dr. King passed the torch to a new editor for the column.

In addition to penning several entries himself, Dr. King wishes to thank all those who submitted or contributed to entires upon his solicitation:

  • Dr. Heather Zelle (University of Virginia)
  • Dr. Tina M. Zottoli (Montclair State University)
  • Dr. Vanessa Edkins (Florida Institute of Technology)
  • Dr. Robert Cochrane (e.g., private practice)
  • Ms. Jill Del Pozzo (doctoral student at Montclair State University)
  • Dr. Emily Haney-Caron (John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
  • Ms. Erika Diaz Ortiz (graduate student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
  • Professor Michael Perlin (e.g., Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates)
  • Ms. Heather Ellis Cucolo (e.g., Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates)
  • Dr. Brianne Layden (Protect International Risk and Safety Services, Inc.)
  • Dr. Neil Gowensmith (University of Denver)
  • Professor Christopher Slobogin (Vanderbilt University)
  • Ms. Ivysmeralys Morales (former graduate student at Montclair State University)
  • Ms. Kellie Wiltsie (law and graduate student at Drexel University)
  • Ms. Aislinn Tansey (graduate student at Drexel University)
  • Dr. David DeMatteo (Drexel University)
  • Dr. Tarika Daftary-Kapur (Montclair State University)
  • Dr. Benjamin van Rooij (University of California, Irvine, and University of Amsterdam)
  • Dr. Adam Fine (Arizona State University)
  • Dr. Michael Saks (Arizona State University)
  • Dr. Lenore Walker (Nova Southeastern University College of Psychology)
  • Ms. Sana Vora (doctoral student at Montclair State University)

bookmark_borderDr. King and Sana Vora published a summary of all of APA’s amicus briefs

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

Dr. King and his doctoral student mentee, Sana Vora, published an entry in the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) News Legal Update column, titled Sixty Years of American Psychological Association Amicus Curiae Briefs: 1962 to 2022.

The entry summarizes the 196 amicus (“friend of court”) briefs, 1 letter in support of certiorari (one route by which a higher court may review the decision of a lower court), and 1 letter in support of petition for review that the American Psychological Association (APA) had filed with a range of courts, beginning in 1962 and up through April 2022.

Dr. King and Ms. Vora have made available for download the data set that they compiled for the project, for use and potential updating in the future by others.

The entry can be read here and the data set is available here.

bookmark_borderDr. King chaired a symposium at the 2022 IAFMHS Conference

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

Dr. King chaired a symposium, presented a symposium paper, and co-authored another symposium paper at the 2022 International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services (IAFMHS) Conference in Berlin, Germany, held June 14–16, 2022.

The symposium was titled The Current Variability of Insanity Approaches Across the United States and Relative to Europe.

Dr. King was the first author of the symposium paper titled 51+ “Little Countries”: Current Insanity Approaches Across United States Jurisdictions.

He also was a co-author of the symposium paper titled Recent Insanity Decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States: M’Naghten is Not the Floor.

Other contributors to the symposium were as follows: Dr. Ira Packer (University of Massachusetts Medical School); Ms. Shelby Taylor (law student at University of Alabama School of Law); Ms. Ivysmeralys Morales (former MA student at Montclair State University and current RA in Dr. King’s lab); Dr. Danielle Rynczak (University of Massachusetts Medical School); Dr. Lauren Kois (University of Alabama); Dr. Michiel van der Wolf (Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands); and Dr. Hjalmar van Marle (Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands).

bookmark_borderDrs. King and Morgan receive grant from the American Psychology–Law Society

Posted on by Dr. Chris King

Dr. King and his Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI), Dr. Robert Morgan of Southern Illinois University, were awarded a grant (Research to Enhance the Impact and Diversification of Psychology and Law Research) from the American Psychology–Law Society (AP-LS), Division 41 of the American Psychological Association (APA) for their proposal, Serious Video Game Technology for Correctional Assessment and Treatment: Project Choices.

Project Choices is a serious video game technology for correctional assessment and treatment, focused on decision-making circa reentry to the community from incarceration. It incorporates a bibliotherapy form of the evidence-based cognitive behavioral treatment program for justice-involved persons developed by Dr. Morgan and his colleagues, Changing Lives and Changing Outcomes (CLCO).

The funded project has several aims.

  • Expand the number of scenarios featured in the adult version of Project Choices.
  • Make more user-friendly the export of player performance metrics for Project Choices.
  • Adapt Project Choices into a version for justice-involved youth.
  • Ready Project Choices and Project Choices: Youth Version for dissemination to the field.
  • Amass materials for an evaluation of the assessment utility of the Project Choices technology.