Jeff A Dennis
Biographic Data
| ID | 4268645 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeff A Dennis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeff A |
| FAMILY NAME | Dennis |
| SIGNATURE | DENNIS J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, USA |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0264-3635 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 118 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Upstream Determinants of Violence
Violence remains a central criminal justice and public health concern, yet policy discussions often narrow analysis to crime, punishment, and individual behavior. A broader framework is needed. Manuscripts in the special issue examine violence as a product of upstream political choices, institutional design, fiscal priorities, fragmented governance, unequal exposure to injury, access to health care, government services availability, and political…
Political Determinants of Health
Deaths of despair (15+ years) are described for two peer county groups. Each county experienced competitive, transitional, or monopoly governance based on the duration of one political party’s control. Highest mortality among non-Hispanic Black (Black) people occurred in monopolies, affecting all age-sex-specific groups from 15–19 to 65–69. Transition to Democratic or Republican party monopolies produced similar overall trends. Governance by the …
County Budget Priorities and Institutional Cycling Between the Criminal Justice and Health Care Systems
County budget priorities shape how local criminal justice systems manage individuals with mental illness when community treatment capacity is limited. Using data from one Texas rural hub county, a 2-year observational analysis paired county budget allocations with hospital emergency department encounters and jail bookings of individuals with serious mental illness. Results showed stable budget priorities favoring correctional and judicial operati…
Lessons From an Interagency Coalition
This study describes the development and evaluation of Better Together, a coalition between law enforcement, first responders, and health care organizations to develop an interagency training for managing justice-involved individuals with mental health issues. In the United States, calls to 9-1-1 and other crisis lines frequently dispatch law enforcement, first responders, and sometimes crisis intervention teams. As these individuals are assessed…
Politics, Partisanship, and Violence
Violence remains a long-standing wicked problem because political, institutional, and fiscal choices shape how violence is defined, measured, and addressed. This special issue synthesizes contributions and uses public health framing to reposition violence as a measurable outcome. We draw together work on deaths of despair, structural violence, firearm homicide, restorative justice, recidivism, institutional cycling, and interagency response to id…
Diversion
This conclusion provides a brief synopsis of the research articles presented in this special edition of The Journal of Contemporary Justice. The research findings clearly demonstrate that when the objective of diversion is sought by diversion-based programs where the criminal justice and health care systems intersect, processes and services frequently break down. As this collection of articles highlights, our collective understanding of diversion…
Perspectives on Diversion in the Criminal Justice and Health care Systems
This introduction offers a primer for this special edition of the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. The purpose is to provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars and practitioners to communicate perspectives of criminal justice, criminology, and law; public policy and administration, economics and political science; social work and sociology; behavioral health, counseling and psychology; public health, emergency medicine, and psych…
A Standardized Matrix for Mental Health Diversion Program Reporting
A matrix is proposed to characterize mental health diversion programs and standardize the reporting of program context, outputs, outcomes, and community settings. Data collection for program reporting is challenging because individual programs report on what is relevant to local conditions and may omit or overlook important contextual or structural factors that are key to programmatic success or failure. This limits generalizability and comparabi…
Diversion
There is a distinct lack of a normative theory for diversion of justice-involved individuals with mental illness at the intersection of the criminal justice and health care systems. The nexus where the criminal justice and health care systems are supposed to connect during diversion is not conceptually framed in a measurable way. The paper proposes a potential systems theory of diversion that explicates the overlapping boundaries within and betwe…
VetStar
Justice-involved veterans are a unique subpopulation with different mental health needs in pre-trial diversion than civilians. Veteran diversion can be challenging, creating evaluation issues at the program (i.e., development, implementation, outcomes), and individual (i.e., positive outcomes) levels. A case study of VetStar, a unified approach diversion for veterans spanning both the criminal justice and healthcare systems, is presented as a mod…
Self-Reported Patient Compliance With Physician Advised Lifestyle Behavior Changes Among Adults With Musculoskeletal Conditions
Introduction: Approximately half of adult Americans suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). Significant risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders include poor diet, obesity, and insufficient physical activity. Studies show that lifestyle change education and interventions reduce MSD risk factors. However, little is known about the relationship between physician advice for behavior change and reported behavior change by MSD patients. This st…
Birth weight and maternal age among American Indian/Alaska Native mothers
Substantial research has examined birth outcomes by race/ethnicity, noting not only disparities by race/ethnicity, but different maternal age patterns in low birth weight (LBW) prevalence. Few studies have examined these disparities among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) mothers, whose LBW prevalence is below the national average, despite substantial socioeconomic disadvantage among the population. Prior work has hypothesized that AI/AN moth…
Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage and Adult Mortality
Negative Acculturation and Nothing More? Cumulative Disadvantage and Mortality during the Immigrant Adaptation Process among Latinos in the United States
Foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanic health deteriorates with increasing exposure and acculturation to mainstream U.S. society. Because these associations are robust to (static) socioeconomic controls, negative acculturation has become their primary explanation. This overemphasis, however, has neglected important alternative structural explanations. Examining Hispanic mortality using the 1998–2006 U.S. National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality…
Young maternal age and low birth weight risk
This study considers how low birth weight (LBW) prevalence varies by race/ethnicity and maternal age and explores mechanisms that explain disparities. Results show that maternal age patterns in LBW risk for African Americans differ from whites and foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanics. Background socioeconomic disadvantage, together with current socioeconomic status and smoking during pregnancy, explain almost all of the LBW disparity between white te…
Social science and health
Few areas in academic research receive as much attention as health and its corollaries, and the Social Science Journal is devoting this special issue to the interaction between health and the socia
Explaining the Early Development and Health of Teen Mothers’ Children 1
The transmission of social disadvantage from teenage mothers to their children is well established, but when and why do these disparities emerge in the early life course? Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study investigated the relationship between teen childbearing and children's cognition, behavior, and health from infancy through preschool. Developmental disparities between teen…
Importation, SES-selective acculturation, and the weaker SES-health gradients of Mexican immigrants in the United States
Previous studies find U.S. immigrants have weaker socioeconomic gradients in health relative to non-Hispanic whites and their U.S.-born co-ethnics. Several explanations have been advanced but few have been tested empirically. We use data from the Mexican Family Life Survey and the U.S. National Health Interview Survey, including longitudinal data in the former measuring SES and health previous to emigration, to test if 1) immigrants "import" thei…
Investigating the Life Situations and Development of Teenage Mothers’ Children
Extended household transitions, race/ethnicity, and early childhood cognitive outcomes
Ready or Not
Who Matters for Children’s Early Development? Race/Ethnicity and Extended Household Structures in the United States
Negative Acculturation and Nothing More? Cumulative Disadvantage and Mortality during the Immigrant Adaptation Process among Latinos in the United States
Foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanic health deteriorates with increasing exposure and acculturation to mainstream U.S. society. Because these associations are robust to (static) socioeconomic controls, negative acculturation has become their primary explanation. This overemphasis, however, has neglected important alternative structural explanations. Examining Hispanic mortality using the 1998–2006 U.S. National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality…
Who Matters for Children’s Early Development? Race/Ethnicity and Extended Household Structures in the United States
Extended household transitions, race/ethnicity, and early childhood cognitive outcomes
Explaining the Early Development and Health of Teen Mothers’ Children 1
The transmission of social disadvantage from teenage mothers to their children is well established, but when and why do these disparities emerge in the early life course? Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study investigated the relationship between teen childbearing and children's cognition, behavior, and health from infancy through preschool. Developmental disparities between teen…
Investigating the Life Situations and Development of Teenage Mothers’ Children
Young maternal age and low birth weight risk
This study considers how low birth weight (LBW) prevalence varies by race/ethnicity and maternal age and explores mechanisms that explain disparities. Results show that maternal age patterns in LBW risk for African Americans differ from whites and foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanics. Background socioeconomic disadvantage, together with current socioeconomic status and smoking during pregnancy, explain almost all of the LBW disparity between white te…
Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage and Adult Mortality
Importation, SES-selective acculturation, and the weaker SES-health gradients of Mexican immigrants in the United States
Previous studies find U.S. immigrants have weaker socioeconomic gradients in health relative to non-Hispanic whites and their U.S.-born co-ethnics. Several explanations have been advanced but few have been tested empirically. We use data from the Mexican Family Life Survey and the U.S. National Health Interview Survey, including longitudinal data in the former measuring SES and health previous to emigration, to test if 1) immigrants "import" thei…
Ready or Not
Who Matters for Children’s Early Development? Race/Ethnicity and Extended Household Structures in the United States
Ready or Not
Explaining the Early Development and Health of Teen Mothers’ Children 1
The transmission of social disadvantage from teenage mothers to their children is well established, but when and why do these disparities emerge in the early life course? Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study investigated the relationship between teen childbearing and children's cognition, behavior, and health from infancy through preschool. Developmental disparities between teen…
Importation, SES-selective acculturation, and the weaker SES-health gradients of Mexican immigrants in the United States
Previous studies find U.S. immigrants have weaker socioeconomic gradients in health relative to non-Hispanic whites and their U.S.-born co-ethnics. Several explanations have been advanced but few have been tested empirically. We use data from the Mexican Family Life Survey and the U.S. National Health Interview Survey, including longitudinal data in the former measuring SES and health previous to emigration, to test if 1) immigrants "import" thei…
Investigating the Life Situations and Development of Teenage Mothers’ Children
Extended household transitions, race/ethnicity, and early childhood cognitive outcomes
Young maternal age and low birth weight risk
This study considers how low birth weight (LBW) prevalence varies by race/ethnicity and maternal age and explores mechanisms that explain disparities. Results show that maternal age patterns in LBW risk for African Americans differ from whites and foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanics. Background socioeconomic disadvantage, together with current socioeconomic status and smoking during pregnancy, explain almost all of the LBW disparity between white te…
Social science and health
Few areas in academic research receive as much attention as health and its corollaries, and the Social Science Journal is devoting this special issue to the interaction between health and the socia
Negative Acculturation and Nothing More? Cumulative Disadvantage and Mortality during the Immigrant Adaptation Process among Latinos in the United States
Foreign- and U.S.-born Hispanic health deteriorates with increasing exposure and acculturation to mainstream U.S. society. Because these associations are robust to (static) socioeconomic controls, negative acculturation has become their primary explanation. This overemphasis, however, has neglected important alternative structural explanations. Examining Hispanic mortality using the 1998–2006 U.S. National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality…
Birth weight and maternal age among American Indian/Alaska Native mothers
Substantial research has examined birth outcomes by race/ethnicity, noting not only disparities by race/ethnicity, but different maternal age patterns in low birth weight (LBW) prevalence. Few studies have examined these disparities among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) mothers, whose LBW prevalence is below the national average, despite substantial socioeconomic disadvantage among the population. Prior work has hypothesized that AI/AN moth…
Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage and Adult Mortality
VetStar
Justice-involved veterans are a unique subpopulation with different mental health needs in pre-trial diversion than civilians. Veteran diversion can be challenging, creating evaluation issues at the program (i.e., development, implementation, outcomes), and individual (i.e., positive outcomes) levels. A case study of VetStar, a unified approach diversion for veterans spanning both the criminal justice and healthcare systems, is presented as a mod…
Self-Reported Patient Compliance With Physician Advised Lifestyle Behavior Changes Among Adults With Musculoskeletal Conditions
Introduction: Approximately half of adult Americans suffer from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). Significant risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders include poor diet, obesity, and insufficient physical activity. Studies show that lifestyle change education and interventions reduce MSD risk factors. However, little is known about the relationship between physician advice for behavior change and reported behavior change by MSD patients. This st…
Diversion
This conclusion provides a brief synopsis of the research articles presented in this special edition of The Journal of Contemporary Justice. The research findings clearly demonstrate that when the objective of diversion is sought by diversion-based programs where the criminal justice and health care systems intersect, processes and services frequently break down. As this collection of articles highlights, our collective understanding of diversion…
Perspectives on Diversion in the Criminal Justice and Health care Systems
This introduction offers a primer for this special edition of the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. The purpose is to provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars and practitioners to communicate perspectives of criminal justice, criminology, and law; public policy and administration, economics and political science; social work and sociology; behavioral health, counseling and psychology; public health, emergency medicine, and psych…
A Standardized Matrix for Mental Health Diversion Program Reporting
A matrix is proposed to characterize mental health diversion programs and standardize the reporting of program context, outputs, outcomes, and community settings. Data collection for program reporting is challenging because individual programs report on what is relevant to local conditions and may omit or overlook important contextual or structural factors that are key to programmatic success or failure. This limits generalizability and comparabi…
Diversion
There is a distinct lack of a normative theory for diversion of justice-involved individuals with mental illness at the intersection of the criminal justice and health care systems. The nexus where the criminal justice and health care systems are supposed to connect during diversion is not conceptually framed in a measurable way. The paper proposes a potential systems theory of diversion that explicates the overlapping boundaries within and betwe…
The Upstream Determinants of Violence
Violence remains a central criminal justice and public health concern, yet policy discussions often narrow analysis to crime, punishment, and individual behavior. A broader framework is needed. Manuscripts in the special issue examine violence as a product of upstream political choices, institutional design, fiscal priorities, fragmented governance, unequal exposure to injury, access to health care, government services availability, and political…
Political Determinants of Health
Deaths of despair (15+ years) are described for two peer county groups. Each county experienced competitive, transitional, or monopoly governance based on the duration of one political party’s control. Highest mortality among non-Hispanic Black (Black) people occurred in monopolies, affecting all age-sex-specific groups from 15–19 to 65–69. Transition to Democratic or Republican party monopolies produced similar overall trends. Governance by the …
County Budget Priorities and Institutional Cycling Between the Criminal Justice and Health Care Systems
County budget priorities shape how local criminal justice systems manage individuals with mental illness when community treatment capacity is limited. Using data from one Texas rural hub county, a 2-year observational analysis paired county budget allocations with hospital emergency department encounters and jail bookings of individuals with serious mental illness. Results showed stable budget priorities favoring correctional and judicial operati…
Lessons From an Interagency Coalition
This study describes the development and evaluation of Better Together, a coalition between law enforcement, first responders, and health care organizations to develop an interagency training for managing justice-involved individuals with mental health issues. In the United States, calls to 9-1-1 and other crisis lines frequently dispatch law enforcement, first responders, and sometimes crisis intervention teams. As these individuals are assessed…
Politics, Partisanship, and Violence
Violence remains a long-standing wicked problem because political, institutional, and fiscal choices shape how violence is defined, measured, and addressed. This special issue synthesizes contributions and uses public health framing to reposition violence as a measurable outcome. We draw together work on deaths of despair, structural violence, firearm homicide, restorative justice, recidivism, institutional cycling, and interagency response to id…
Medicine (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Demography (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Demography (7 works) · Economic Justice (7 works) · Mental health (7 works) · Criminal justice (6 works)