Christy A Visher
Biographic Data
| ID | 315383 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christy A Visher |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christy A |
| FAMILY NAME | Visher |
| SIGNATURE | VISHER C A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Delaware |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 483 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The Last Straw: Sudden Shifts in Substance Use During the First 6 Months After Prison Release
Substance use during reentry is a complex and dynamic phenomenon. Although using substance and returning to prison are what post-incarcerated individuals are determined to avoid, stressors such as financial hardship, family estrangement, and other challenges can put them at an elevated risk of substance use. This study examined whether substance use during reentry is best characterized as a cusp catastrophe process in which substance use, rather …
“This Place Will Wear You Down”: Examining the Organizational and Contagion Effects of Stress on Correctional Staff Working Overtime in U.S. Prisons
Prisons are stressful environments for both people living and working in them. Extant literature suggests that correctional staff have increased stress levels that lead to compromised physical health, mental health, social relationships, and increased emotional strain. This article reports on a project utilizing a modified Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to understand the mechanisms that lead to increased stress levels among correcti…
How to Listen Through a Wall: Lessons From Conducting Participatory Action Research in an Urban Prison
This project sought to understand the present-day experiences of individuals housed in prisons by utilizing Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods that partnered a university research team with individuals incarcerated in an urban correctional facility. The team assessed perceptions of the current environment by surveying people incarcerated in an urban prison. This article discusses the role of PAR methodologies from project initiation to f…
Violent Victimization During Reentry: Prevalence, Triggers, and Impact on Mental Health
Victimization is associated with a cascade of negative outcomes, and the literature has been enriched by research that situates victimization in the life context of key social groups such as children, youth, women, and veterans. Yet, less is known about violent victimization in the context of prisoner reentry. Using longitudinal data documenting reentry experiences, the current study examines the prevalence, triggers and impact of victimization a…
When Post-Incarcerated Individuals Return to High-Risk Neighborhoods: Staying Out of Trouble, Social Withdrawal, and Mental Health
Studies show that residents from urban, high-risk neighborhoods fair worse on multiple behavioral and health outcomes than their counterparts from more socially and economically advantaged neighborhoods. However, few research efforts have been devoted to examining how formerly incarcerated individuals’ concerns over neighborhood environment are associated with reentry outcomes. Using longitudinal data that captured the reentry experiences of indi…
Enhancing community integration after incarceration: Findings from a prospective study of an intensive peer support intervention for veterans with an historical comparison group
Changing Prisons to Help People Change
It is important to consider the conditions of prison life in understanding how individuals rejoin society at the conclusion of their sentence. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach that promotes new ways of thinking and behaving for both incarcerated persons and correctional staff that will better prepare returning citizens to be valuable community members. We consider that “since criminal behavior is driven partly by c…
Strain During Reentry: A Test of General Strain Theory Using a Sample of Adult Former Prisoners
The majority of reentry studies focus on identifying different dimensions of reentry needs among released prisoners. Less explored is the mechanism by which unfulfilled reentry needs cause reentry failure. Applying the general strain theoretical perspective, this study aims to use an emotional and psychological prism to explain why released prisoners are likely to experience reentry failure when their reentry needs are not met. Findings demonstra…
Decomposition of the Role of Family in Reentry: Family Support, Tension, Gender, and Reentry Outcomes
A vast body of reentry research has investigated the role of family in facilitating reentry success. However, it is largely unknown whether family can both be a source of support and conflict and if so, whether these impacts are gender-specific. This study explores the heterogeneous elements that family brings to the reintegration process. Findings suggest that released prisoners’ families can bring either crime-inhibitory or criminogenic influen…
Father Involvement in the First Year After Prison: Considerations for Social Work
Purpose: Paternal incarceration poses significant concerns for fathers and their children. Despite the known negative consequences, little is understood about father involvement after prison. This study aims to further understanding of fatherhood following incarceration to inform future intervention strategies. Method: Using data from the Urban Institute’s Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry Study ( N = 326), we condu…
I've just never done that: ” The influence of transitional anxiety on post‐incarceration reentry and reintegration experiences among veterans
Military veterans involved in the criminal justice system are a vulnerable subpopulation that has extensive physical and behavioural health treatment needs. Like non-veteran populations, safe and stable housing, employment and social support are critical for veterans returning to society after incarceration. The challenges of social reintegration are immense, and the risk of recidivism is high. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has deve…
Linking individuals on probation to health care: A pilot randomized trial
Evaluating the Long-Term Effects of Prisoner Reentry Services on Recidivism: What Types of Services Matter?
We analyzed data collected for a large multi-site evaluation of 12 prisoner reentry programs in 12 states to examine the impact of pre-release services on time to rearrest and number of rearrests up to 56 months post-release for male offenders. A two-stage matching quasi-experimental design was used to define the comparison groups and multivariate models were used to examine the relationships among service and program receipt and recidivism. Part…
Social Networks and Desistance
Changing the Ties that Bind: How Incarceration Impacts Family Relationships
Research Summary By using a subsample of the Returning Home data set, we explored how family relationships change during reentry as a result of incarceration. Overall, we found that individuals who completed parenting classes, those with more frequent visits from family members, and Black and female respondents experienced positive changes in family relationships. On the other hand, single and divorced individuals, those with prior convictions an…
Decide Your Time: A Randomized Trial of a Drug Testing and Graduated Sanctions Program for Probationers
Research Summary This study used a randomized controlled trial approach with a sample of 400 high‐risk probationers to test the hypothesis that a program incorporating principles of deterrence, graduated sanctions, and coerced abstinence would reduce recidivism rates among drug‐using offenders. Bivariate and multilevel modeling strategies were implemented. Findings revealed no discernable difference across multiple drug use, probationary, and rec…
Re-entry and Reintegration After Incarceration
Drug Use and Crime after Incarceration: The Role of Family Support and Family Conflict
People who were previously incarcerated overwhelmingly cite family interaction as among the most important factors in successful reentry and desistance. Yet, little research has explicitly sought to explore the relationship between family support and family conflict among former prisoners and their effect on reentry. Utilizing social control theory from a life course perspective, the current project explores patterns of drug use and criminal desi…
Understanding the sustainability of implementing HIV services in criminal justice settings
BACKGROUND: In the growing field of implementation science, sustainability is a critical component of the implementation process of moving evidence-based treatments to regular practice. This paper is intended to extend our understanding of factors that influence the sustainability of HIV services in correctional settings following an organization-level intervention designed to implement improvements in preventing, detecting, or treating HIV for p…
Efficacy of a Process Improvement Intervention on Delivery of HIV Services to Offenders: A Multisite Trial
Objectives. We tested a modified Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) process improvement model to implement improved HIV services (prevention, testing, and linkage to treatment) for offenders under correctional supervision. Methods. As part of the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies, Phase 2, the HIV Services and Treatment Implementation in Corrections study conducted 14 cluster-randomized trials in 2011 to 2013 a…
Incarcerated Fathers: Pathways From Prison to Home
Prior research indicates that strong family support can play an important role in helping men and women transition from prison to home and can actually reduce the likelihood of recidivism. Assuming traditional roles within a family, such as parent or spouse, can also aid in the reentry transition process and has been linked to positive outcomes after release. Using data from a longitudinal study of fathers returning to the community after a perio…
A cluster randomized trial of utilizing a local change team approach to improve the delivery of HIV services in correctional settings: Study protocol
BACKGROUND: Persons held in correctional facilities are at high risk for HIV infection and their prevalence of HIV is substantially higher than in the general population. Thus, the need for proper surveillance and care of this high risk population is a paramount public health issue. This study aims to evaluate an organization-level intervention strategy for improving HIV services for persons in prison or jail. METHODS/DESIGN: HIV Services and Tre…
Incarceration and inmates’ self perceptions about returning home
Life on the Outside: Returning Home after Incarceration
With record-high incarceration rates, unprecedented extension of state supervision over individuals leaving prison, and a complex maze of legal barriers to reintegration, more people than ever before are returning home after serving time in prison. These individuals face daunting barriers to successful reintegration. Successful reentry requires strong community support networks and comprehensive services, both of which are lacking in urban areas …
Employment After Prison: A Longitudinal Study of Former Prisoners
Finding sustained employment is an important component of the transition from prison to the community for exiting prisoners. Anecdotal reports from former prisoners indicate that most individuals experience great difficulties finding jobs after their release. However, little systematic information is available about the employment experiences of individuals released from prison or the characteristics of former prisoners who are successful in loca…
Transitions from Prison to Community: Understanding Individual Pathways
In 2002, over 600,000 individuals left state and federal prisons, four times as many as were released in 1975. However, according to a national study, within 3 years, almost 7 in 10 will have been rearrested and half will be back in prison, either for a new crime or for violating conditions of their release. Clearly, an individual's transition from prison back into a home and into a community is difficult, and avoiding crime can be the least of h…
Gender, Police Arrest Decisions, and Notions of Chivalry
The extent of preferential treatment toward female offenders during arrest has been a neglected topic in research on female criminality. This article uses data collected in 1977 during police‐suspect encounters with 785 males and females to explore the existence of chivalrous treatment of female offenders in the initial stages of criminal processing. These data indicate that chivalry exists at the stage of arrest for those women who display appro…
Street-Level Justice: Situational Determinants of Police Arrest Decisions
In this paper we examine variations in police arrest practices. Data collected in 1977 from police encounters with suspects indicate that arrest practices reflect legal and extra-legal factors. The decision to take a suspect into custody is influenced by such features of the situation as the dispositional preferences of victims, the race and demeanor of the suspect, and the presence of bystanders. Furthermore, the seriousness of the offense incre…
Predicting the Recidivism of Serious Youthful Offenders Using Survival Models
Increases over the past decade in the number and seriousness of crimes committed by young offenders have resulted in renewed interest in control of the serious, violent, or chronic youthful offender. Recent research has established a number of theoretically relevant variables associated with persistent offending and offending defined recidivism. Few studies, however, have examined the individual characteristics that might predict the timing of yo…
The Impacts of Evidence and Extralegal Factors in Jurors' Decisions
This study uses data from courtroom observations and posttrial interviews with jurors who served in thirty-eight actual sexual assault trials. It addresses three issues: (1) the effects of several measures of evidence on jurors' judgments of a defendant's guilt, (2) the relative merits of jurors' recollections of the evidence and measures of evidence coded at trial by trained observers, and (3) whether the effects of jurors' attitudes toward crim…
Changing the Ties that Bind: How Incarceration Impacts Family Relationships
Research Summary By using a subsample of the Returning Home data set, we explored how family relationships change during reentry as a result of incarceration. Overall, we found that individuals who completed parenting classes, those with more frequent visits from family members, and Black and female respondents experienced positive changes in family relationships. On the other hand, single and divorced individuals, those with prior convictions an…
Decide Your Time: A Randomized Trial of a Drug Testing and Graduated Sanctions Program for Probationers
Research Summary This study used a randomized controlled trial approach with a sample of 400 high‐risk probationers to test the hypothesis that a program incorporating principles of deterrence, graduated sanctions, and coerced abstinence would reduce recidivism rates among drug‐using offenders. Bivariate and multilevel modeling strategies were implemented. Findings revealed no discernable difference across multiple drug use, probationary, and rec…
Incarceration and inmates’ self perceptions about returning home
Jurors' Responses to Victims' Behavior and Legal Issues in Sexual Assault Trials
Feminists argue that rape laws and their application are explained by social rules requiring women to conform to conservative sex-role norms and defining them as the sexual property of men. We operationalized and tested some of these arguments with data on 360 jurors who served in rape trials. Courtroom observations led us to distinguish trials in which the major issue was whether a sexual assault occurred (consent or “no sex” cases) from trials …
Decide your time: Testing deterrence theory's certainty and celerity effects on substance-using probationers
I've just never done that: ” The influence of transitional anxiety on post‐incarceration reentry and reintegration experiences among veterans
Military veterans involved in the criminal justice system are a vulnerable subpopulation that has extensive physical and behavioural health treatment needs. Like non-veteran populations, safe and stable housing, employment and social support are critical for veterans returning to society after incarceration. The challenges of social reintegration are immense, and the risk of recidivism is high. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has deve…
Social Networks and Desistance
Reducing Intimate Partner Violence: An Evaluation of a Comprehensive Justice System‐community Collaboration
Research Summary In 1999, three communities were selected to participate in a research demonstration designed to test the feasibility and impact of a coordinated response to intimate partner violence that involved the courts and justice agencies in a central role. The primary goals of the Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) were to increase victim safety, hold offenders accountable, and reduce repeat offending using coordinated community servi…
Effective Reentry Programs
Father Involvement in the First Year After Prison: Considerations for Social Work
Purpose: Paternal incarceration poses significant concerns for fathers and their children. Despite the known negative consequences, little is understood about father involvement after prison. This study aims to further understanding of fatherhood following incarceration to inform future intervention strategies. Method: Using data from the Urban Institute’s Returning Home: Understanding the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry Study ( N = 326), we condu…
Using drug testing to identify high-risk defendants on release: A study in the district of Columbia
Sex and Involvement in Deviance/Crime: A Quantitative Review of the Empirical Literature
Forty-four studies reporting data on the relationship between sex and indicators of deviance/criminality are reduced to a single data base. Contingency tables (1,118) are generated from the extant empirical literature on sex and deviance and comparable statistics are calculated, using instances where the sex-deviance relationship was reported for specific categories of class position, age, data type, year of study, level of family intactness, rac…
Street-Level Justice: Situational Determinants of Police Arrest Decisions
In this paper we examine variations in police arrest practices. Data collected in 1977 from police encounters with suspects indicate that arrest practices reflect legal and extra-legal factors. The decision to take a suspect into custody is influenced by such features of the situation as the dispositional preferences of victims, the race and demeanor of the suspect, and the presence of bystanders. Furthermore, the seriousness of the offense incre…
Gender, Police Arrest Decisions, and Notions of Chivalry
The extent of preferential treatment toward female offenders during arrest has been a neglected topic in research on female criminality. This article uses data collected in 1977 during police‐suspect encounters with 785 males and females to explore the existence of chivalrous treatment of female offenders in the initial stages of criminal processing. These data indicate that chivalry exists at the stage of arrest for those women who display appro…
Equity and Discretionary Justice: The Influence of Race on Police Arrest Decisions
Douglas A. Smith, Christy A. Visher, Laura A. Davidson, Equity and Discretionary Justice: The Influence of Race on Police Arrest Decisions, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 234-249
Jurors' Responses to Victims' Behavior and Legal Issues in Sexual Assault Trials
Feminists argue that rape laws and their application are explained by social rules requiring women to conform to conservative sex-role norms and defining them as the sexual property of men. We operationalized and tested some of these arguments with data on 360 jurors who served in rape trials. Courtroom observations led us to distinguish trials in which the major issue was whether a sexual assault occurred (consent or “no sex” cases) from trials …
The Impacts of Evidence and Extralegal Factors in Jurors' Decisions
This study uses data from courtroom observations and posttrial interviews with jurors who served in thirty-eight actual sexual assault trials. It addresses three issues: (1) the effects of several measures of evidence on jurors' judgments of a defendant's guilt, (2) the relative merits of jurors' recollections of the evidence and measures of evidence coded at trial by trained observers, and (3) whether the effects of jurors' attitudes toward crim…
"Criminal Careers and "Career Criminals: Vol. 1
Using drug testing to identify high-risk defendants on release: A study in the district of Columbia
Predicting the Recidivism of Serious Youthful Offenders Using Survival Models
Increases over the past decade in the number and seriousness of crimes committed by young offenders have resulted in renewed interest in control of the serious, violent, or chronic youthful offender. Recent research has established a number of theoretically relevant variables associated with persistent offending and offending defined recidivism. Few studies, however, have examined the individual characteristics that might predict the timing of yo…
Pretrial Drug Testing: Panacea or Pandora's Box
Pretrial drug testing of arrestees and defendants released before trial is increasingly being implemented in state and local criminal justice agencies. The federal courts are also considering whether pretrial drug testing should be initiated in each district. But researchers and policymakers are currently engaged in a vigorous debate about the merits and drawbacks of pretrial drug-testing programs. Critics contend that the programs are difficult …
Transitions from Prison to Community: Understanding Individual Pathways
In 2002, over 600,000 individuals left state and federal prisons, four times as many as were released in 1975. However, according to a national study, within 3 years, almost 7 in 10 will have been rearrested and half will be back in prison, either for a new crime or for violating conditions of their release. Clearly, an individual's transition from prison back into a home and into a community is difficult, and avoiding crime can be the least of h…
Ex-offender employment programs and recidivism: A meta-analysis
Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America
Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America is intended to shed light on a question that fuels the public's concern about the number of returning prisoners. What are the public safety consequences of the fourfold increase in the number of individuals entering and leaving the nation's prisons each year? Many have speculated about the nexus between prisoner reentry and public safety. Journalistic accounts of the reentry phenomenon have painted a picture …
Effective Reentry Programs
Reducing Intimate Partner Violence: An Evaluation of a Comprehensive Justice System‐community Collaboration
Research Summary In 1999, three communities were selected to participate in a research demonstration designed to test the feasibility and impact of a coordinated response to intimate partner violence that involved the courts and justice agencies in a central role. The primary goals of the Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) were to increase victim safety, hold offenders accountable, and reduce repeat offending using coordinated community servi…
Life on the Outside: Returning Home after Incarceration
With record-high incarceration rates, unprecedented extension of state supervision over individuals leaving prison, and a complex maze of legal barriers to reintegration, more people than ever before are returning home after serving time in prison. These individuals face daunting barriers to successful reintegration. Successful reentry requires strong community support networks and comprehensive services, both of which are lacking in urban areas …
Employment After Prison: A Longitudinal Study of Former Prisoners
Finding sustained employment is an important component of the transition from prison to the community for exiting prisoners. Anecdotal reports from former prisoners indicate that most individuals experience great difficulties finding jobs after their release. However, little systematic information is available about the employment experiences of individuals released from prison or the characteristics of former prisoners who are successful in loca…
Decide your time: Testing deterrence theory's certainty and celerity effects on substance-using probationers
Incarceration and inmates’ self perceptions about returning home
Incarcerated Fathers: Pathways From Prison to Home
Prior research indicates that strong family support can play an important role in helping men and women transition from prison to home and can actually reduce the likelihood of recidivism. Assuming traditional roles within a family, such as parent or spouse, can also aid in the reentry transition process and has been linked to positive outcomes after release. Using data from a longitudinal study of fathers returning to the community after a perio…
A cluster randomized trial of utilizing a local change team approach to improve the delivery of HIV services in correctional settings: Study protocol
BACKGROUND: Persons held in correctional facilities are at high risk for HIV infection and their prevalence of HIV is substantially higher than in the general population. Thus, the need for proper surveillance and care of this high risk population is a paramount public health issue. This study aims to evaluate an organization-level intervention strategy for improving HIV services for persons in prison or jail. METHODS/DESIGN: HIV Services and Tre…
Efficacy of a Process Improvement Intervention on Delivery of HIV Services to Offenders: A Multisite Trial
Objectives. We tested a modified Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) process improvement model to implement improved HIV services (prevention, testing, and linkage to treatment) for offenders under correctional supervision. Methods. As part of the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies, Phase 2, the HIV Services and Treatment Implementation in Corrections study conducted 14 cluster-randomized trials in 2011 to 2013 a…
Re-entry and Reintegration After Incarceration
Drug Use and Crime after Incarceration: The Role of Family Support and Family Conflict
People who were previously incarcerated overwhelmingly cite family interaction as among the most important factors in successful reentry and desistance. Yet, little research has explicitly sought to explore the relationship between family support and family conflict among former prisoners and their effect on reentry. Utilizing social control theory from a life course perspective, the current project explores patterns of drug use and criminal desi…
Understanding the sustainability of implementing HIV services in criminal justice settings
BACKGROUND: In the growing field of implementation science, sustainability is a critical component of the implementation process of moving evidence-based treatments to regular practice. This paper is intended to extend our understanding of factors that influence the sustainability of HIV services in correctional settings following an organization-level intervention designed to implement improvements in preventing, detecting, or treating HIV for p…
Psychology (37 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (32 works) · Criminology (32 works) · Political science (23 works) · Medicine (18 works) · Prison (18 works) · Psychiatry (15 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (14 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (14 works) · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending (13 works)