Doctoral Student Receives National Institute of Justice FellowshipAriana Wall, a doctoral student at the School of Social Work, has received a dissertation fellowship for $20,000 from he National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and development branch of the U.S. Department of Justice. Her dissertation is entitled "Delinquency in the Child Welfare System: Influential Child and Caregiver Characteristics," and will examine the individual and family factors that predict a child's transition to and from more serious delinquent behavior, and investigate if different child welfare services settings have different impacts on delinquency. "During my work as a MSW student and in the five years before returning to school for my PhD, I saw a lot of kids in the juvenile justice system with incredible odds stacked up against them," Wall said. "Since that time I have always known I wanted to do my part to help kids have a shot at growing up away from crime and not 'graduating' into the adult justice system." Wall will research the characteristics of a national sample of children and their caregivers to determine factors that make the child either more or less susceptible to engaging in delinquent behavior. Wall applied for the fellowship after a co-worker saw an announcement from the NIJ and passed it along to her. The award will be distributed as a monthly stipend for the 2003-2004 academic year.
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