Social Science Spotlight: Mapping Juvenile Justice

Psychology’s Professor Erika Fountain and GES’s Professor Dillon Mahmoudi recently published research on how minors involved in the juvenile justice system are required to navigate Baltimore City and Baltimore County in order to meet court compliance requirements, and the transportation and support available for them to do so.

A discussion with local attorneys about adolescent clients’ struggle to keep up with expectations of the court inspired the study. Probation requirements often include school, program involvement, meetings, etc, which can span miles across the city or county. Some kids might have as many as 9-10 requirements to keep up with their probation, and if they fall out of compliance, they could face confinement. While the courts aim to keep kids in their communities, it can be difficult to meet all requirements without access to transportation and logistical support.

Drs. Fountain and Mahmoudi decided to map geographically what these requirements look like for kids, and take into account their families, support systems, and access to the city’s transportation network. They seek to define the universe of expectations placed on the involved youth: what are they expected to do each week, what the entire experience looks like from their perspective, and what burdens it places on their families. As part of the mapping project, Fountain and Mahmoudi identified Department of Juvenile Services office locations and homes of the involved youths. Digging deeper, they examined what the home communities face in terms of economics, racial segregation, social marginalization, and access to cars or public transportation, to identify barriers to compliance for the youth.

Through interviews and a focus group, the researchers plan to have participants interact with maps and explain different stages of getting to compliance requirements, identifying social impediments (like bus fare) and spacial impediments (like traveling from Catonsville to Owings Mills for multiple appointments).

Fountain and Mahmoudi are partnering with The Choice Program at UMBC and its youth advisory board (composed of High School students) to think through challenges with transportation and how it impacts compliance for court-involved youth. They plan to begin additional data collection this year, and eventually expand their mapping project to other cities.

Dr. Erika Fountain is a developmental community psychologist with the Department of Psychology, and Dr. Dillon Mahmoudi is an urban and economic geographer with the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems.

Registration for the 2021-2022 course year is open now through July 1, 2022.

The Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research (IPPCR) course trains registrants on how to effectively and safely conduct clinical research. The course focuses on the spectrum of clinical research and the research process by highlighting biostatistical and epidemiologic methods, study design, protocol preparation, patient monitoring, quality assurance, ethical and legal issues, and much more.

Course Objectives

• Provide an overview of basic biostatistical and epidemiologic methods involved in conducting clinical research.

• Describe the principles involved in the ethical, legal, and regulatory issues in clinical human subjects research, including the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).

• Describe principles and issues involved in monitoring patient-oriented research.

• Describe the infrastructure required in performing clinical research and the steps involved in developing and funding research studies.

Intended Audience

This course will be of interest to physicians, scientists, medical and dental students, nurses, public health professionals, and others conducting or planning a career in clinical research.

Course Directors

	John I. Gallin, MD – Course Co-Director Dr. John Gallin serves as the National Institutes of Health's Associate Director for Clinical Research and Chief Scientific Officer of the NIH Clinical Center. He has published more than 365 articles in scientific journals and has edited two textbooks – "Inflammation, Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates" (Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, 1999, now in 3rd edition) and "Principles and Practice of Clinical Research" (Academic Press, now in 4th edition, 2018). Dr. Gallin is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and he is a Master of the American College of Physicians.
	Anne Zajicek, MD, Pharm.D., FAAP – Course Co-Director Dr. Zajicek is a board certified pediatrician and pediatric clinical pharmacologist who currently serves as Deputy Director of the Office of Clinical Research at the National Institutes of Health.
	Laura Lee Johnson, Ph.D. – Course Co-Director Laura Lee Johnson, Ph.D. is the patient focused drug development liaison and the division director for the Office of Biostatistics at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). She specializes in design, logistics, implementation, and analysis of research studies of all sizes and in measurement tool and endpoint development. Prior to working at the FDA she spent over a decade at the U.S. National Institutes of Health working on and overseeing clinical research and research support programs.
	Lisa Cordes, Pharm.D., BCACP, BCOP – Course Co-Director Dr. Lisa M. Cordes is an Oncology Clinical Pharmacy Specialist and Educator for the National Institutes of Health. In her current position, she provides clinical and protocol support to the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch and the Clinical Pharmacology Program of the National Cancer Institute, and is co-director of the Principles of Clinical Pharmacology course. Click here for more information!