April Pattavina
Senior Scholar
- Ph.D., Northeastern University
- apattavi@wellesley[dot]edu
Research interests include justice system response to sexual violence, intimate partner violence, gendered pathways to criminal offending and rehabilitation, racial and gender disparities in the justice system, alternatives to incarceration
April Pattavina, Ph.D., co-founded the Justice and Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative (JGBVR) at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) along with Linda M. Williams, Ph.D., in the fall of 2015. As a senior scholar at WCW, Pattavina continued her collaboration with the JGBVR. She serves as Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
See April Pattavina's Projects
Pattavina is currently co-principal investigator of the Wellesley-based National Institute for Justice (NIJ) research award: Responding to Sexual Assault on Campus: A National Assessment and Systemic Classification of the Scope and Challenges for Investigation and Adjudication and Decision-Making in Sexual Assault Cases: Multi-site Replication Research on Sexual Violence Case Attrition in the U.S.
Dr. Pattavina’s research focuses on the justice system response to sexual violence, intimate partner violence, gendered pathways to criminal offending and rehabilitation, racial and gender disparities in the criminal justice system, alternatives to incarceration that consider ties to families, communities and support networks for those dealing with substance use problems, program evaluation, and the application of technological innovation to support behavioral change.
Funding for Dr. Pattavina’s work came from federal agencies including the National Institute of Justice, The Bureau of Justice Assistance, and The Department of Housing and Urban Development. Her work had also been supported by the Boston Foundation as well as local criminal justice agencies.
Morabito, M., Pattavina, A. & Williams, L. (2016). Active Representation and the Police Responses to Sexual Assault Complaints. Journal of Criminal Justice. Published online first: August 17, 2016.
Morabito, M., Pattavina, A. and Williams, L. (2016). The Cumulative Effects of Challenges to Victim Credibility in Sexual Assault Case Processing. Forthcoming. Journal of Intimate Partner Violence. Forthcoming.
Pattavina, A., Socia, K. and Zuber, M. (2015). Economic stress and domestic violence: Examining the impact of mortgage foreclosures on incidents reported to the police from 2005 to 2009. Justice Research and Policy.
Pattavina, A. Morabito, M. and Williams, L. (2015). Examining connections between the police and prosecutor in sexual assault case processing: Does the use of exceptional clearance facilitate a downstream orientation? Victims and Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy and Practice (On-line first). Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/H64FNrBuchRQsGYRKQf/full
Pattavina, A. Hirschel, D. and Scearbo, M. (2013). Assessing the reliability of substance abuse reporting in intimate partner violence. Justice Research and Policy. 15,21-42.
McLaughry, C. Chang, B. Kirste, C. Hirschel, D. Buzawa, E. Pattavina, A. Doyle, S. and Cullinane, D. (2013) Severity of Injury and decision to arrest in cases of intimate partner violence. Medicine, Science and the Law, 53, 24-28.
Hirschel, D. Buzawa, E. Pattavina, A. and Faggiani, D. (2007). Domestic violence preferred and mandatory arrest laws: To what extent do they influence police arrest decisions. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 98, 257-298.
Curcio G. and Pattavina, A. (2016) Still Paying for the Past: Examining the Gender Effects of a Criminal Record on Future Employment. Feminist Criminology. Published online first, June 2016.
Fagan, J., Braga, A., Brunson, R., and Pattavina, A. (2016) Stops and Stares: Street Stops, Surveillance, and Race in the New Policing. Fordham Urban Law Journal 43 (3) In press.
Byrne, J.M. Pattavina, A. and Taxman, F. (2015). International trends in prison upsizing and downsizing: In search of a global rehabilitation revolution. Victims and Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy and Practice, 10, 1-31.
Taxman, F.S., Pattavina, A. and Caudy, M. (2014). Justice reinvestment in the United States: An empirical assessment of potential impact of increased correctional programming on recidivism Victims and Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy and Practice, 9,50-75.
Pattavina, A. Hirschel, D. Buzawa, E. and Bentley, H. (2007). A comparison of the police response to heterosexual versus same-sex intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 13,374-394.
Corbett, R. P. & Pattavina, A. (2015) Promoting Offender Change in the Community. Community Corrections, 4, 5-9, Summer.
Corbett, R.P and Pattavina, A. (2015) Syncing GPS with New Directions in Managing Offender Change: Behavioral Economics and the Promise of Evidence-Based Technology. National Association of Probation Executives, Executive Exchange.
Pattavina, A. and Taxman, F. (2013) Using discrete-event simulation modeling to estimate the impact of RNR program implementation on recidivism levels. In F.S. Taxman and A. Pattavina (Eds) Simulation Techniques for Reducing Recidivism; Risk, Need, Responsivity Modeling for the Criminal Justice System. 285-308) New York: Springer.
Pattavina, A., Myofsky-Tusinski, K. and Byrne, J.M.(2010). Innovation in Community Corrections: From Monitoring technology to persuasive technology. Journal of Offender Monitoring. 23, 4-9.