Kimberly R Kras
Biographic Data
| ID | 4115294 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kimberly R Kras |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kimberly R |
| FAMILY NAME | Kras |
| SIGNATURE | KRAS K R |
| AFFILIATIONS | San Diego State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0592-0418 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Re(z)ilient Voices: Exploring Discrimination, Delinquency, and Historical Trauma Among Indigenous Youth
Limited criminal justice research focuses on the experiences of American Indians. This is also true for American Indian youth. To expand current scholarship, our research investigates the experiences of American Indian youth in the Southwestern United States to examine their experiences with discrimination and historical trauma. Existing scholarship suggests both are ubiquitous and overwhelming in the everyday lives of American Indians due in lar…
What Are Community Supervision Officers’ Knowledge and Views of Naloxone? An Exploratory Study
Naloxone is a critical component in fighting the opioid epidemic, particularly for justice-involved individuals who are at an increased risk of drug-related deaths. However, numerous barriers to carrying the medication continue to exist for individuals under community supervision. Little is known about community supervision officers’ perceptions and knowledge surrounding Naloxone, which is critical in understanding barriers to Naloxone possession…
Perceptions of behavioral health care quality for justice-involved veterans: A multi-jurisdictional analysis of Veterans Treatment Court team insights
BACKGROUND: A key function of Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) is the facilitation of behavioral health care for criminal justice-involved veterans, and this care may occur in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities and/or in the community. This study explores the perceived quality of care in these two settings based on interviews with 145 VTC team members from 20 court jurisdictions across the United States (US). RESULTS: Team members’ o…
Individual and Organizational Correlates of Morale Among Workers in a Youth and Family Court Agency
Morale is an important feature of organizational work life; however, few studies in criminal justice settings consider measuring morale in organizational surveys, nor how morale might link to other employee characteristics, like personal attitudes. The current study surveys 180 workers in a youth and family court setting to examine the relationship between morale and organizational- and individual-level factors. Survey results reveal positive fee…
Cyclical Pathways to Probation Violations: Housing, Financial Capabilities, and Covid-19
Maintaining a stable residence is a primary requirement of probation compliance. Prior research has spoken to the increase in requirements for people on probation and how they are often tied to financial capability. Using data from in-depth interviews with people on probation and probation staff, our analysis extends extant research by highlighting the unique challenges of finding housing during a historic rise in housing and rental prices in the…
The price of a sex offense conviction: A comparative analysis of the costs of community supervision
Monetary sanctions can expand the scope and depth of punishment. Most research on monetary sanctions has centered on fines and fees assessed by the court, but they are also routinely imposed as part of the probation and parole sentence. In this article, we draw on in‐depth interview data from a sample of individuals under correctional supervision to document the often hidden costs of correctional control. We further consider a subsample of partic…
The Irredeemable? How Men Convicted of Sexual Offenses Reflect and Reconcile Redemption and Condemnation Scripts on the Path to Desistance
Desistance from sexual offending is of great import to scholars, practitioners, and the public. Despite theoretical advances in life course theories generally, the same work is only beginning for subgroups, like individuals convicted of sexual offenses, who may have a different desistance process than other types of offense categories due to the nature of the crime, structural disadvantage, and mandated treatment contexts. The current study consi…
Twice Punished: Perceived Procedural Fairness and Legitimacy of Monetary Sanctions
Legal financial obligations (LFOs) are routinely assessed by the courts and corrections agencies. Yet, little is known about how individuals under correctional supervision experience and perceive legal debt. Understanding perceptions of LFOs is critical as research suggests that individuals who believe that criminal justice sanctions are fair and just are more likely to perceive the system as legitimate and comply. The current study examines in-d…
Access to Health Care and Treatment Among Individuals Convicted of Sexual Offenses Paroled to Urban and Rural Communities
Returning from prison to the community is rife with challenges. For individuals with health care, mental health, or substance abuse treatment needs, the reentry period can be especially vulnerable. Furthermore, these services are not evenly distributed across communities. This study explores barriers to health care and treatment among individuals convicted of sexual offenses who are returning from prison to urban and rural communities. Using data…
Photovoice as a Research Technique for Student Learning and Empowerment: A Case Study from a South Texas Border Town
Criminal justice (CJ) education often includes culminating research courses as part of its curriculum. Many of these courses follow a traditional process of considering ethics, theory, research design, quantitative and qualitative methods, and aspects of experiential learning. However, the pedagogy around engaging contemporary modes of knowledge building in CJ, especially those that critique traditional models and rely on new technologies, is lac…
Sex Offense Management and Supervision: A Framework for Advancing Research and Evidence-Informed Practice
Since the 1990s, the post-conviction management of individuals with histories of sexual offending has occupied a prominent place in U.S. criminal justice policy and practice. With over 200,000 such individuals under supervision nationwide, probation and parole agencies have deployed a range of specialized models of sex offender management and supervision (SOMS) to manage this “high stakes” population. Yet despite significant shifts in community s…
Using Plan-Do-Study-Act and Participatory Action Research to Improve Use of Risk Needs Assessments
Many community supervision agencies use a risk/need assessment tool (RNA) to assess client risk level, inform case planning decisions, and allocate supervision resources. Research suggests agencies do not always implement RNA tools as intended, without offering practitioners solutions for improving these implementation concerns. Using a participatory action research framework, this case study highlights one probation office's efforts to improve t…
Structural discrimination and social stigma among individuals incarcerated for sexual offenses: Reentry across the rural–urban continuum
The stigma associated with a felony conviction can impede the reentry process, and emerging research findings indicate that one's community can amplify or temper the mark of a criminal record. Researchers examining criminal stigma have focused on individuals living in urban areas, overlooking the experiences of persons outside these communities. Using qualitative data collected from a sample of men and women paroled for sexual offenses in Missour…
Mean Lives, Mean Laws: Oklahoma’s Women Prisoners
The effects of mass incarceration on offenders, families, and communities have emerged as an important topic of inquiry in criminology. As the rate of incarceration increases in the United States t
Managing from the Middle: Frontline Supervisors and Perceptions of Their Organizational Power
Frontline supervisors serve in a critical role, maintaining relationships between upper management and frontline workers; however, we still know relatively little about how subordinates view their power in relation to their supervisors and how frontline supervisors understand and exercise their own power. Focusing on street‐level workers and frontline supervisors across a statewide community corrections agency, we explore perceptions, experiences…
The Effect and Implications of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: Evidence from a Two‐State Evaluation
Research Summary We evaluated the efficacy of sex offender residence restrictions in Michigan and Missouri using a quasi‐experimental design with propensity score matching. First, we examined the implementation of the laws and found that sex offenders in both states were less likely to live in restricted areas after the implementation of the laws than the prerestriction sample, but the differences were not statistically significant. In our outcom…
Revisiting Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory to Better Understand and Assist Victims of Intimate Personal Violence
Domestic violence or intimate personal violence, a matter once considered private, has gained increased attention as a public health crisis. In their efforts to better understand and prevent this behavior, social science researchers and epidemiologists have discovered the link between early exposure to violence and spousal abuse. This paper uses Albert Bandura's social learning theory to explain interpersonal and intergenerational violence. In th…
The Effect and Implications of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: Evidence from a Two‐State Evaluation
Research Summary We evaluated the efficacy of sex offender residence restrictions in Michigan and Missouri using a quasi‐experimental design with propensity score matching. First, we examined the implementation of the laws and found that sex offenders in both states were less likely to live in restricted areas after the implementation of the laws than the prerestriction sample, but the differences were not statistically significant. In our outcom…
Structural discrimination and social stigma among individuals incarcerated for sexual offenses: Reentry across the rural–urban continuum
The stigma associated with a felony conviction can impede the reentry process, and emerging research findings indicate that one's community can amplify or temper the mark of a criminal record. Researchers examining criminal stigma have focused on individuals living in urban areas, overlooking the experiences of persons outside these communities. Using qualitative data collected from a sample of men and women paroled for sexual offenses in Missour…
The Irredeemable? How Men Convicted of Sexual Offenses Reflect and Reconcile Redemption and Condemnation Scripts on the Path to Desistance
Desistance from sexual offending is of great import to scholars, practitioners, and the public. Despite theoretical advances in life course theories generally, the same work is only beginning for subgroups, like individuals convicted of sexual offenses, who may have a different desistance process than other types of offense categories due to the nature of the crime, structural disadvantage, and mandated treatment contexts. The current study consi…
Managing from the Middle: Frontline Supervisors and Perceptions of Their Organizational Power
Frontline supervisors serve in a critical role, maintaining relationships between upper management and frontline workers; however, we still know relatively little about how subordinates view their power in relation to their supervisors and how frontline supervisors understand and exercise their own power. Focusing on street‐level workers and frontline supervisors across a statewide community corrections agency, we explore perceptions, experiences…
The price of a sex offense conviction: A comparative analysis of the costs of community supervision
Monetary sanctions can expand the scope and depth of punishment. Most research on monetary sanctions has centered on fines and fees assessed by the court, but they are also routinely imposed as part of the probation and parole sentence. In this article, we draw on in‐depth interview data from a sample of individuals under correctional supervision to document the often hidden costs of correctional control. We further consider a subsample of partic…
Revisiting Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory to Better Understand and Assist Victims of Intimate Personal Violence
Domestic violence or intimate personal violence, a matter once considered private, has gained increased attention as a public health crisis. In their efforts to better understand and prevent this behavior, social science researchers and epidemiologists have discovered the link between early exposure to violence and spousal abuse. This paper uses Albert Bandura's social learning theory to explain interpersonal and intergenerational violence. In th…
The Effect and Implications of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: Evidence from a Two‐State Evaluation
Research Summary We evaluated the efficacy of sex offender residence restrictions in Michigan and Missouri using a quasi‐experimental design with propensity score matching. First, we examined the implementation of the laws and found that sex offenders in both states were less likely to live in restricted areas after the implementation of the laws than the prerestriction sample, but the differences were not statistically significant. In our outcom…
Managing from the Middle: Frontline Supervisors and Perceptions of Their Organizational Power
Frontline supervisors serve in a critical role, maintaining relationships between upper management and frontline workers; however, we still know relatively little about how subordinates view their power in relation to their supervisors and how frontline supervisors understand and exercise their own power. Focusing on street‐level workers and frontline supervisors across a statewide community corrections agency, we explore perceptions, experiences…
Mean Lives, Mean Laws: Oklahoma’s Women Prisoners
The effects of mass incarceration on offenders, families, and communities have emerged as an important topic of inquiry in criminology. As the rate of incarceration increases in the United States t
Using Plan-Do-Study-Act and Participatory Action Research to Improve Use of Risk Needs Assessments
Many community supervision agencies use a risk/need assessment tool (RNA) to assess client risk level, inform case planning decisions, and allocate supervision resources. Research suggests agencies do not always implement RNA tools as intended, without offering practitioners solutions for improving these implementation concerns. Using a participatory action research framework, this case study highlights one probation office's efforts to improve t…
Structural discrimination and social stigma among individuals incarcerated for sexual offenses: Reentry across the rural–urban continuum
The stigma associated with a felony conviction can impede the reentry process, and emerging research findings indicate that one's community can amplify or temper the mark of a criminal record. Researchers examining criminal stigma have focused on individuals living in urban areas, overlooking the experiences of persons outside these communities. Using qualitative data collected from a sample of men and women paroled for sexual offenses in Missour…
Twice Punished: Perceived Procedural Fairness and Legitimacy of Monetary Sanctions
Legal financial obligations (LFOs) are routinely assessed by the courts and corrections agencies. Yet, little is known about how individuals under correctional supervision experience and perceive legal debt. Understanding perceptions of LFOs is critical as research suggests that individuals who believe that criminal justice sanctions are fair and just are more likely to perceive the system as legitimate and comply. The current study examines in-d…
Access to Health Care and Treatment Among Individuals Convicted of Sexual Offenses Paroled to Urban and Rural Communities
Returning from prison to the community is rife with challenges. For individuals with health care, mental health, or substance abuse treatment needs, the reentry period can be especially vulnerable. Furthermore, these services are not evenly distributed across communities. This study explores barriers to health care and treatment among individuals convicted of sexual offenses who are returning from prison to urban and rural communities. Using data…
Photovoice as a Research Technique for Student Learning and Empowerment: A Case Study from a South Texas Border Town
Criminal justice (CJ) education often includes culminating research courses as part of its curriculum. Many of these courses follow a traditional process of considering ethics, theory, research design, quantitative and qualitative methods, and aspects of experiential learning. However, the pedagogy around engaging contemporary modes of knowledge building in CJ, especially those that critique traditional models and rely on new technologies, is lac…
Sex Offense Management and Supervision: A Framework for Advancing Research and Evidence-Informed Practice
Since the 1990s, the post-conviction management of individuals with histories of sexual offending has occupied a prominent place in U.S. criminal justice policy and practice. With over 200,000 such individuals under supervision nationwide, probation and parole agencies have deployed a range of specialized models of sex offender management and supervision (SOMS) to manage this “high stakes” population. Yet despite significant shifts in community s…
The price of a sex offense conviction: A comparative analysis of the costs of community supervision
Monetary sanctions can expand the scope and depth of punishment. Most research on monetary sanctions has centered on fines and fees assessed by the court, but they are also routinely imposed as part of the probation and parole sentence. In this article, we draw on in‐depth interview data from a sample of individuals under correctional supervision to document the often hidden costs of correctional control. We further consider a subsample of partic…
The Irredeemable? How Men Convicted of Sexual Offenses Reflect and Reconcile Redemption and Condemnation Scripts on the Path to Desistance
Desistance from sexual offending is of great import to scholars, practitioners, and the public. Despite theoretical advances in life course theories generally, the same work is only beginning for subgroups, like individuals convicted of sexual offenses, who may have a different desistance process than other types of offense categories due to the nature of the crime, structural disadvantage, and mandated treatment contexts. The current study consi…
Individual and Organizational Correlates of Morale Among Workers in a Youth and Family Court Agency
Morale is an important feature of organizational work life; however, few studies in criminal justice settings consider measuring morale in organizational surveys, nor how morale might link to other employee characteristics, like personal attitudes. The current study surveys 180 workers in a youth and family court setting to examine the relationship between morale and organizational- and individual-level factors. Survey results reveal positive fee…
Cyclical Pathways to Probation Violations: Housing, Financial Capabilities, and Covid-19
Maintaining a stable residence is a primary requirement of probation compliance. Prior research has spoken to the increase in requirements for people on probation and how they are often tied to financial capability. Using data from in-depth interviews with people on probation and probation staff, our analysis extends extant research by highlighting the unique challenges of finding housing during a historic rise in housing and rental prices in the…
Re(z)ilient Voices: Exploring Discrimination, Delinquency, and Historical Trauma Among Indigenous Youth
Limited criminal justice research focuses on the experiences of American Indians. This is also true for American Indian youth. To expand current scholarship, our research investigates the experiences of American Indian youth in the Southwestern United States to examine their experiences with discrimination and historical trauma. Existing scholarship suggests both are ubiquitous and overwhelming in the everyday lives of American Indians due in lar…
What Are Community Supervision Officers’ Knowledge and Views of Naloxone? An Exploratory Study
Naloxone is a critical component in fighting the opioid epidemic, particularly for justice-involved individuals who are at an increased risk of drug-related deaths. However, numerous barriers to carrying the medication continue to exist for individuals under community supervision. Little is known about community supervision officers’ perceptions and knowledge surrounding Naloxone, which is critical in understanding barriers to Naloxone possession…
Perceptions of behavioral health care quality for justice-involved veterans: A multi-jurisdictional analysis of Veterans Treatment Court team insights
BACKGROUND: A key function of Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) is the facilitation of behavioral health care for criminal justice-involved veterans, and this care may occur in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities and/or in the community. This study explores the perceived quality of care in these two settings based on interviews with 145 VTC team members from 20 court jurisdictions across the United States (US). RESULTS: Team members’ o…
Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Criminology (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (7 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (6 works)