University of Southern California
USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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About
Karen Murrill HenniganAssistant Professor (Research) of PsychologyContact Information E-mail: hennigan@usc.edu Phone: (213) 740-4269 Office: SGM 1015 |
Description of Research |
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Summary Statement of Research Interests |
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| My current program of research aims to apply principles of social identity and social categorization theories to the pernicious problem of street gang affiliation among urban youth. A series of studies testing factors that may inadvertently promote gang association as well as factors that may help discourage gang association are underway. A spin-off from this effort includes the development of an assessment designed to identify youth at risk for joining street gangs that can be used to target prevention services toward youth most in need. Parts of this research take place in the context of regional efforts to prevent or suppress gang membership, delinquency and criminal offending. Applied contexts included in this work vary from neighborhood gang injunction policies to local gang prevention and intervention programs. A second area of research is focused on longitudinal outcomes in juvenile justice programs and mediators of success and failure such as negative peer social influence or deviancy training in community intervention programs that group youth at different levels of experience and sophistication together. | |
Research Keywords |
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| Social Identity Theory, Prevention and Intervention with Street Gangs, Juvenile Justice, Civil Gang Injunction, Program Evaluation | |
Other Research |
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 As a paid consultant, (in collaboration with Chris Murray and others) I developed and implemented a survey of each County Juvenile Probation Department in California, developing information needed to assess each county's progress toward evidence-based practices in juvenile probation. The data were presented over a series of meetings to the commissioners and were used to develop and document the policies set out in a new Blueprint for an Outcome-Oriented Juvenile Justice System for the State of California (http://67.199.72.34/php/Information/JJOMPFinalReport.pdf ), 01/24/2009-01/23/2010
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Publications |
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Book Chapter |
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Hennigan, K., Spanovic, M.
(2011).
Gang Dynamics Through the Lens of Social Identity Theory. Youth Gangs in International Perspective: Results pp. 34 manuscript pages. New York, New York: Springer. PubMed Web Address
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Journal Article |
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Maxson, C., Matsuda, K., Hennigan, K.
(2011).
Deterrability among gang amd nongang juvenile offedners: Are gang members more or less detrrable than otehr juvenile offenders?. Crime and Delinquency/ Sage Publications.
Vol. 57 (4), pp. 516-543.
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