UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #740

Research Mentor Information
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Primary Research Mentor Name: Alexandra Cockerham
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?: Professor
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): amg08k@fsu.edu
Position Title: Faculty
FSU College (if applicable): Social Sciences and Public Policy
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation: Interdisciplinary Social Science
Headshot (optional): {Empty}

Additional Research Mentor(s)
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Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above): James Cockerham
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?: Dr. 
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): jmc09m@fsu.edu
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable): Radha Modi
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns: {Empty}
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?: Prof.
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated): rmodi@fsu.edu

Overall Project Details
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Title of the Project: Assessing the Impact of North Carolina Teen Court on Recidivism
Project Keywords: Juvenile justice, theraputic justice, teen court
Are you currently looking for research assistants?: No
Number of Research Assistants Needed : 3
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s):
Open to all majors

Project Location:: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?: {Empty}
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s):: Partially Remote
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work?: 5
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work?: Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description:
Students will have the opportunity to join in on the research process that is the result of a grant with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This research aims to determine the effects of teen courts on recidivism in North Carolina. Teen courts are a diversion program serving as an alternative to processing juveniles through the traditional justice system. Given the nature of teen courts, specifically their unique ability to connect offending juveniles to their crime and the comprehensive nature of including the youth’s parents, peers, and community in the sentencing process, we believe that this is a unique diversion source that will have reductionary effects on an at-risk youth’s propensity to enter and a court involved youth’s propensity to re-enter the system. In this project we sent out surveys to all 100 counties in North Carolina to learn more about the structure of teen court and juvenile justice in each county. The survey results provide unique insight into the juvenile justice system in North Carolina.

Research Tasks:
We envision that our research assistant would help work on more of the qualitative components of this project. In addition to conducting a handful of site visits, observations and interviews, we also sent a survey out to each of the 68 teen courts in North Carolina. This allowed us to gather information on the type of teen court model that is used (i.e, adult judge model, youth judge model, mixed models, peer jury model, youth tribunal, etc.) and types of sentencing that are typically handed out. W also sent a survey to the 32 counties that do not use teen court as an option to learn more information about their best practices with regard to options for diverting youth from the traditional justice system. 

We hope that our UROP research assistant would help us review the survey results from across North Carolina. This would involve reviewing relevant literature, compiling descriptive information regarding the teen courts in North Carolina and detailing patterns observed. 

Specific ideas below:
1. Literature review on therapeutic justice
2. Survey Results Analysis-- Students will review the survey results from the teen court project. They will summarize general impressions of the teen court landscape and/or any patterns observed across counties in the way that teen court operates.
3. Site Visit Analysis- students will review site visit notes to better understand teen court operations in specific teen courts.
4. Manuscript Editing-- Students will review the manuscript for publication and provide edits.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need::
Required- ability to read academic articles, ability to summarize descriptive statistical information

Mentoring Philosophy:
My goal as a faculty at FSU is to help students find their passions and realize their potential. Mentors have the power to expose students to new interests and opportunities. In my PhD program, I had the immense privilege to work with mentors that have changed the trajectory of my life just because they believed in me, encouraged me to challenge myself and guided me along the way. I hope to pay this forward to undergraduate students.

Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):: https://osf.io/akgtz
Please add any additional information here (if applicable)::
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Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable?: No
Roundtable times and Zoom links:
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UROP Program Elements
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Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication: Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation: Yes
Materials Grant: Yes
UROP Poster Presentation: Yes

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Year: 2024
update url: https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?token=f5qE1-Y4bRuZL4VZH5Zg9jeat2BGxL10BlD4yq9C76s