Just Science

In episode three of our Strengthening the Forensic Workforce season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Mark McCoy, Professor and Administrator of the Digital Evidence and Cyber Security Program at the University of Central Oklahoma Forensic Science Institute, and Josh Brunty, an Associate Professor of Digital Forensics in the School of Forensic & Criminal Justice Sciences at Marshall University, to d...

In episode two of our Strengthening the Forensic Workforce season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Sarah Williams, a Research Associate Professor in Forensic Science at Virginia Commonwealth University and Dr. Keith Morris, a Ming Hsieh Distinguished Teaching Professor of Forensic & Investigative Science at West Virginia University to discuss undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate programs in foren...

In episode one of our Strengthening the Forensic Workforce season, Just Science sat down with Dr. José Almirall, a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Advanced Research in Forensic Science at Florida International University, and Dr. Sarah Kerrigan, Professor and Chair of the Forensic S...

In the final episode of our 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month mini season, Just Science sat down with Natasha Alexenko, a sexual assault survivor, advocate, author, and founder of Natasha’s Justice Project, to discuss advocacy for vulnerable populations and trauma-informed approaches to sexual assault. As a sexual assault survivor and advocate, Natasha Alexenko has dedicated her career to improv...

In episode four of our 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month mini season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Rachael Goodman-Williams, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wichita State University, and Dr. Jessica Volz, Clinical Director of Forensics at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, to discuss why survivors sometimes choose not to report their sexual assault. After receiving medical c...

In episode three of our 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month mini season, Just Science sat down with Kelly Taylor, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), Sexual Assault Care Coordinator, and Forensic Healthcare Program Manager, to discuss trauma-informed support for sexual assault survivors and the prevalence of strangulation in sexual assault cases. Trauma-informed, victim-centered expertise and...

In episode two of our 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month mini season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Julie Valentine, a Researcher, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), and the Associate Dean of Brigham Young University’s College of Nursing, to discuss sexual assault cases involving strangulation and dating apps. While working as a sexual assault nurse examiner, Dr. Valentine and colleagues noti...

In the final episode of our Community Relations season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Mike Planty, the Director of RTI’s Center for Community Safety, to discuss how emerging technologies in policing affect community relations. Evaluating community sentiments about their respective police departments is an important part of ensuring that community needs are being addressed. The Criminal Justice Te...

In episode three of our Community Relations season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Nick Richardson, a research analyst in RTI’s Center for Community Safety, to discuss disparities in police responses to cases of interpersonal violence. Addressing racial, socioeconomic, and other inequities in arrests is critical to improving community relations with law enforcement. Researchers have unearthed gend...

In episode two of our Community Relations season, Just Science sat down with Lieutenant Renae Lockhart and Azalea Garza-Orozco with the ACORNS Unit at the Raleigh Police Department, as well as Brian Aagaard, a research analyst at RTI's Applied Justice Research Division, to discuss alternative responses to traditional law enforcement. Instances of police brutality combined with an increased awarene...

In episode one of our Community Relations season, Just Science sat down with Monica Sheppard, a research analyst, and Dr. Yamanda Wright, a research psychologist in RTI’s Transformative Research Unit for Equity (TRUE), to discuss reforming American pretrial policies. Researchers have closely followed the racial and economic disparities that exist in American incarceration, particularly surrounding...

In the final episode of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Natasha Alexenko, Lieutenant Jordan Satinsky, and Marya Simmons to discuss at-home sexual assault kits through a victim-centered lens. Throughout this season, Just Science has spoken with various subject matter experts to discuss several perspectives posed by the use of at-home sexual assault...

In episode seven of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Patti Powers, an attorney advisor at AEquitas and a former senior deputy prosecuting attorney in Washington state, to discuss at-home sexual assault kits from a prosecutorial point of view. For many survivors of sexual violence, engaging in prosecution can be an important step in their healing pr...

In episode six of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Jay Henry, the former Crime Laboratory Director of the Utah Department of Public Safety. Mr. Henry, an experienced forensic scientist and former crime laboratory director, understands the complexities that surround the collection and testing of evidence, especially biological samples. Listen along...

In episode five of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Scott Mourtgos, a PhD Candidate at the University of Utah, a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) LEADS Scholar, and the Deputy Chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department to provide a law enforcement perspective to our discussion on at-home sexual assault kits. Sexual assault cases are some of t...

In episode four of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Laurieann Thorpe, the Executive Director at Prevent Child Abuse Utah, to continue our discussion on at-home sexual assault kits. Prevent Child Abuse Utah is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on preventing and responding to child sexual abuse. Listen along as Executive Dire...

In episode three of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Toni Laskey, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and the division chief of the Center for Safe and Healthy Families at Primary Children’s Hospital. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys under the age of 18...

In episode two of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Monica Gardner, an advocate, a former rape crisis center team advocate, and a survivor of sexual abuse as a child and as an adult, to discuss at-home sexual assault kits from a survivor's perspective. Monica Gardner knows firsthand that healing isn't linear -- which is why, as a survivor herself, s...

In episode one of our Perspectives on At-Home Sexual Assault Kits season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Julie Valentine, a researcher, sexual assault nurse examiner, and the Associate Dean of Brigham Young University’s College of Nursing, to discuss the use of at-home sexual assault kits. As a researcher in sexual assault response reform and a sexual assault nurse examiner, Dr. Valentine is a sub...

In this special release episode, Just Science sat down with Dr. Jennifer Rineer, a research psychologist and program manager in RTI International’s Center for Policing Research and Investigative Science, and Maureen McGough, Chief of Staff at the Policing Project at NYU Law and the co-founder of the 30x30 Initiative, to discuss efforts to recruit more women in policing. Women are vastly underrepre...

In episode three of our Firearms Research mini season, Just Science sat down with Mark Pope, Director of the Policing Research Program within the Center for Policing Research & Investigative Science, and Dr. John Hollywood, a senior operations researcher at RAND and the Director of the Center for Quality Policing, to discuss mass shooting attacks. From Sandy Hook, to Las Vegas, to Parkland, there...

In episode two of our Firearms Research season, Just Science sat down with Dr. Josh Hendrix, a researcher at RTI International’s Center for Community Safety & Crime Prevention and an expert in school safety and violence prevention, to discuss school safety during an age of mass shootings. Dr. Hendrix has performed in-depth analysis on the efficacy of school tip lines, an anonymous means for studen...

In episode one of our Firearms Research mini season, Just Science sat down with Nicole Jones, the Director of the Forensic Science Translation and Implementation Program in the Center for Forensic Sciences at RTI International, and John Grassel, a Program Manager for RTI’s Center for Forensic Sciences and co-Director of the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE), to discuss toolmark anal...

In episode four of our Workforce Resiliency mini season, Just Science sat down with Donia Slack, the Director of the Research, Technology, and Evaluation Program in RTI’s Center for Forensic Sciences, to discuss the literature gaps within resiliency and vicarious trauma research. Discussions on how post-traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout can affect first responders...

In episode three of our Workforce Resiliency mini season, Just Science continues our conversation with Dr. Cara Berg Raunick, a women’s health nurse practitioner and the Director of Clinical Quality and Advancement at Health Care Education and Training, on vicarious trauma experienced by sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs). On last week’s episode, Dr. Berg Raunick discussed the realities of vic...