Posick

Chad Posick

Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia Southern University
Areas of Expertise:
  • Criminal Justice

Connect with Chad

About Chad

Chad Posick is an assistant professor and graduate coordinator in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia Southern University. He teaches in the areas of victimology, statistics, and criminal behavior. His major research interests include the intersection of violent behavior and victimization, the developmental outcomes associated with trauma and abuse, and violence prevention. He is a research associate at the Ochsner Institute for Injury Research and Prevention at Memorial University Medical Center, board member for the local Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) chapter, and research partner on the Bureau of Justice Assistance funded Smart Prosecution project in Savannah, Georgia. In 2015, he won the New Scholar Award given by the victimology section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. 

Briefs | Podcast | Publications | In the News

Contributions

The Role of Emotional Distress in Victim Reports of Crime and Perceptions of Police Response

  • Michael Singleton
SSN Key Findings,

The Role of Empathy in Crime, Policing, and Justice

SSN Key Findings,

No Jargon Podcast

In the News

"Why We Must Re-Engage, Even When We Disagree," Chad Posick (with Michael Rocque), Bangor Daily News, July 19, 2018.
"4 Reasons to Doubt the 'Ferguson Effect' and Claims of a National Criminal Wave," Chad Posick (with Steven E. Barkan and Michael Rocque), Bangor Daily News, May 2, 2015.
"A Biosocial Explanation for Running from Police," Chad Posick, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, August 5, 2015.
"Practice These Skills to Help End Police-Community Tragedies," Chad Posick, Youth Today, May 11, 2015.
"Baltimore Riots: the Fire this Time and the Fire Last Time and the Time Between," Chad Posick (with Kimberly Moffitt, Briallen Hopper, John Rennie Short, Kate Drabinski, Michael Sierra-Arévalo, and Vesla Weaver), Politics & Society, The Conversation, April 28, 2015.
"Empathy on the Street: How Understanding Between Police and Communities Makes Us Safer," Chad Posick, Politics & Society, The Conversation, April 20, 2015.
Guest to discuss reducing the number of violent crimes on WSAV NBC, Chad Posick, April 28, 2017.
"Us vs Them Needs to be Us with Them," Chad Posick, The Conversation, April 28, 2015.
"How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Criminal Justice: Part 2," Chad Posick, Interview with Edwin Rusch, Center for Building a Culture of Empathy and Compassion, December 10, 2012.
"How to Build a Culture of Empathy in Criminal Justice: Part 1," Chad Posick, Interview with Edwin Rusch, Center for Buidling a Culture of Empathy and Compassion, December 10, 2012.

Publications

Great Debates in Criminology (with Michael Rocque) (Routledge, 2019).

Explores the role of theory and research in criminology. Adopts a unique and refreshing approach to criminological theory and focuses on the great debates in criminology from its inception as a field to the present day. Explores the debates that have motivated criminological thought, that have represented turning points in theoretical and empirical trajectories, that have offered mini-paradigm shifts, and that have moved the field forward.

 

"Risk Factors for and Behavioral Consequences of Direct Versus Indirect Exposure to Violence" American Journal of Public Health 106, no. 1 (2016): 178-188.

Finds that youths who tended to be personally victimized were also likely to witness violence; conversely, youth who disproportionately witnessed violence were relatively unlikely to experience personal victimization.

"Who Seeks Counseling for Intimate Partner Violence? The Role of Emotional Distress" (with Laura E. Agnich, Christina Policastro, and Heather Hatfield). Criminal Justice Review 41, no. 2 (2016): 159-172.

Utilizes a university sample to explore who seeks counseling for exposure to threatening intimate partner violence.

"Putting HEART Into Policing: A 21st Century Model for Effective and Fair Policing" (with Heather Hatfield). An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 40, no. 1 (2017): 128-140.

Shows that the application of the H.E.A.R.T medical model is the most significant and substantial correlate of perceived fairness of police-community interactions and accounts for agency-level differences in perceived fairness.

"Person-in-Context: Insights on Contextual Variation in the Victim-offender Overlap across Schools" (with Gregory M. Zimmerman). Journal of Interpersonal Violence 30, no. 8 (2015): 1432-1455.
Suggests that victimization is positively and significantly related to offending in all school contexts but that the relationship between victimization and offending is stronger in non-urban schools than in urban schools. Indicates that negative emotionality may play a key role in unpacking the mechanisms through which context moderates the victim-offender overlap.
"On the General Relationship between Victimization and Offending: Examining Cultural Contingencies" (with Laurie A. Gold). Journal of Criminal Justice 43, no. 3 (2015): 195-204.
Suggests that victimization remains a salient predictor of offending across contexts with overall consistency in its effect on offending. Some cultural indicators were shown to slightly moderate this relationship.
"More Than a Feeling: Integrating Empathy into the Study of Lawmaking, Lawbreaking, and Reactions to Lawbreaking" (with Michael Rocque and Nicole Rafter). International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (November 2012).
Incorporates empathy into several facets of criminology including the explanations of: lawmaking, lawbreaking (delinquency), and relationships with law enforcement.
"Do Boys Fight and Girls Cut? A General Strain Theory Approach to Gender and Deviance" (with Amy Farrell and Marc Swatt). Deviant Behavior (forthcoming).
Reviews the research on the impact of strains on behavior as well as how strain leads to negative emotions which influence behavior, then analyzes data on a sample of adolescents to explore how strain differentially affects boys and girls and how their response to emotions impacts their individual behavior.
"Victimization and Police Reporting: The Role of Negative Emotionality" Psychology of Violence (forthcoming).
Describes the emotions felt by individuals after their victimization experience, and examines the causes of these emotions and investigates the pathway from these emotions to police reporting.