HPS faculty and students represented UNT at the Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice conference in Fort Worth October 13-14.

Jessica Craig, Ph.D., assistant professor of criminal justice and doctoral students from HPS’s Public Administration department Mustafa Icer and Yusuf Baktir presented their research titled Military and Crime: A systematic review of the literature.

Kaleigh Laird, criminal justice master’s student and Adam Trahan, Ph.D., associate professor of criminal justice and graduate coordinator, presented their research titled The Effects of Racism and Locus Control on Death Penalty Support. The presentation received the first place award in the conference’s Graduate Student Paper Competition. Laird’s major points were:

“Research has shown that death penalty opinions are shaped in part by racial attitudes and beliefs regarding locus of control. We suspect that these two constructs interact in complex ways to shape peoples’ attitudes toward capital punishment. To begin exploring this possibility, we analyze data from the Cumulative File of the General Social Survey. Respondents’ attitudes toward capital punishment were regressed on a measure of attributional racism and standard control variables. Findings showed that respondents who believe racial inequalities are due to internal attributes are more likely to favor the death penalty.”

Criminal justice master’s student Chris Guerra and Trahan presented research titled An Overview of Body Camera Literature. Guerra’s major findings were:

 “Given its relatively new position in the law enforcement landscape, there is much debate about body camera effectiveness. Though the research on this topic is in its infancy, the majority of extant research reveals a negative correlation between body camera use and officer misconduct. The current study conducted a systematic review of the literature to better understand the link between body camera implementation and policing misconduct. Several methodological limitations were identified, including contamination, attrition, and technological challenges. Methods to address these issues and goals for future research are also addressed.”

Brooke Nodeland, Ph.D., assistant professor of criminal justice and Mark Saber, Ph.D., lecturer, presented their collaborative research titled Student and Faculty Attitudes towards Campus Carry.

"I feel like I didn't choose Emergency Management, Emergency Management chose me. When I was in high school I got involved with the Civil Air Patrol. Oddly enough, the day after I got my membership card in the mail was September 11, 2001. During Katrina in 2005, I found myself in a Salvation Army Shelter, advising the Command team on best practices to organize and manage the large influx of donations, volunteers, and unique medical needs of evacuees. In all of that, I found a passion and excitement of trying to create order of chaos. By 2007, I was enrolled in the UNT EADP program.

I probably had a more unique experience while earning my EADP degree. I was the very last UNT student that had to travel to UT Arlington to earn a Commission in the U.S. Army through the ROTC program. When I graduated, I commissioned onto Active Duty with the U.S. Army as an MP Officer thinking that would get me in the middle of the action for using my Emergency Man-agement skills. I was right and wrong. I was in the middle of the action at Fort Hood alright, but Emergency Management was somewhat of a foreign concept to MP's at the time. Using my net-work of classmates and what I learned at UNT, I was able to help develop the understanding and of Emergency Management within the Military Police Brigade at Fort Hood.

I left active duty in 2014 to earn my Juris Doctor (Law Degree) at Texas A&M School of Law in Fort Worth. To my surprise, I became one of the handful of people in the United States to take even a slight interest in Emergency and Disaster Management Law. I had no clue how I was going to make a job out of it though, since virtually no firms really practiced in the area. Looking back, I think my wife was more worried than I was. So, I started writing. I not only started a blog "Emergency Management Law.com" but I also wrote three articles on very unique topics of the law related Emergency Management. Two of these articles will be published in Spring 2018. One by the South Texas Law Review and the other by the Cooley Journal of Clinical and Practical Law. The third was a grant funded project that analyzed how to effectively enforce evacuation orders and avoid over criminalizing the act of staying behind. I've also spoken on Emergency Management and the Law at three separate conferences and have earned my "Certified Law Enforcement Planner" credential.

I say all of this not to stroke my ego (though many may still accuse me of it). I offer this as an example with a small piece of advice that few may heed: Don't be scared to avoid the path well-traveled. Sure, the beaten path offers many opportunities before you and we often need people on that path, but blazing a new trail is sometimes what the profession needs. See a need and work your hardest to fill that need. I did it, and not only am I supporting the profession with meaningful discussion on the law, but I'm enjoying every minute of what I do."

This Alumni Spotlight on William Gribble ('09) first appeared in the Fall 2017 issue of The Mitigator, the EMDS department newsletter.

University of North Texas student Rusty Carter struggled with alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and a failing marriage, a few months after he was honorably discharged from the Army. He knew that something needed to change in his life after a failed suicide attempt in June 2013.

“I hated who I was,” he says. “I spent years hiding behind a bottle in a feeble attempt to suppress my thoughts and drink my pain away. I created a façade to shield others from the truth, and worst of all, I lied to myself.”

Four years later, he graduated with honors from the University of North Texas to serve those who face some of the same issues as he did. With his bachelor’s degree in social work, he plans to become a mental health counselor to fellow veterans. Rusty also plans to earn a master of social work degree, to prepare for doing research on adjustments veterans face when they leave the military

Rusty says he started to turn his life around after enrolling at Collin College in Plano. He became friends with an employee at the college’s Veterans’ Resource Center, and soon started working at the center as a veterans’ liaison.

The work resulted in Rusty changing his goal of transferring to Texas A&M University to study petroleum engineering, to transferring to UNT.

“I was a motorcycle technician in Dallas when I enrolled at Collin College and had done construction work and work as a security guard. I only enrolled because a friend told me I could get a very well-paying job in his company if I became a petroleum engineer. But working with other veterans gave me a sense of belonging,” Rusty says. “Serving these men and women brought a sense of joy back into my life that I had been missing. Knowing that they too were lost and I was able, whether in a small or large way, to assist them and point them in the right direction felt good.”

Rusty says his biggest personal changes happened about in spring 2015, nine months after he began working at the Veterans’ Resource Center. He went through a divorce but also achieved sobriety “after two years of drinking more than two and a half gallons of liquor a week.”

That May, he received his associate’s degree from Collin College. He entered UNT the following August.

“I began surrounding myself with positive individuals and stopped dwelling on my shortcomings,” he says.

Rusty has been working as the veteran services coordinator with Stay the Course, a nonprofit organization in Fort Worth that serves veterans, since last February. He received the Student of the Year Award for 2016 from the National Association of Social Workers Texoma Branch and graduated from UNT in December 2017 with honors.

By Nancy Kolsti, UNT News Service