Beyond the Gray Area: My call to action to bridge the gap between public safety research and real-world application

I graduated with my Master’s in Forensic Psychology in 2015. Young, bright-eyed, and admittedly anxious I was ready to apply all that I learned during my studies. Granted, I didn’t go to grad school to only avoid joining the workforce – I wanted to help people! An endeavor riddled with altruism, indeed. Going into my grad program, I had clinical experience mostly working with adolescents with problematic behavior ranging from physical and sexual aggression to self-harm. Those kids taught me what it meant to be resilient and how underfunded mental health services truly are. I also noticed a lot of what I was learning in academia was not being applied in the real-world.

I often questioned the staff, “why are my "low-risk" kids receiving the same level of intervention as my "high-risk" kids?” And often the response would be “we’re zero tolerance”. But surely everyone knows that interventions designed for high risk behaviors can inadvertently have an iatrogenic or negative effect on the lower risk behaviors, right? To which my overworked, on the verge of burnout, co-counselor would shrug heavy shoulders and move on to the next caseload. It was in that moment I realized a huge disservice was in effect – the research was not reaching those in the frontline.

Knowing that this gap was not only out there but growing and causing counter productivity, I determined something more needed to be done. I made it my professional goal to bridge the gap between research and real-world application - dedicated to helping the criminal justice field build safer worlds.

After graduating, I joined forces with Global Institute of Forensic Research (GIFR) who then joined forces with Multi-Health Systems Inc. (MHS). With our powers combined, we continually work to not only promote evidence-based practices but also provide the training resources to enable frontline professionals to effectively implement them.

Recently, a call for more science in forensic science was made by Bell et al. (2018), but more support for clinicians is needed as well. With an increasing flow of good new science, we must ensure that outdated and disproved techniques stay out of our system and policies. To achieve this, evidence-based BEST practices need to be taught in an accessible, cost efficient, and rapid manner.

To that end, as a training consultant I aim to produce and facilitate trainings that are designed to share thought-leaders’ expertise in a digestible, accessible, and affordable modality such that frontline professionals are provided with opportunities that allow them to learn about cutting-edge research that they can incorporate into daily practice.

Fortunately, my overarching goal is slowly coming to fruition; with GIFR & MHS, bridging the gap remains a collaborative process that brings agencies, policymakers, and public safety leaders together to set measurable goals while implementing practical, data-driven best practices to reduce recidivism and ultimately improve public safety. This mission will remain an ongoing endeavor that I have dedicated myself to and I invite you to join me.

If you're a mental health, correctional, or legal agency wondering where or how to obtain evidence-based training, consider checking out https://www.gifrinc.com/

Katrina is the Training Consultant for the Public Safety Division of Multi Health Systems Inc. (MHS) and the Director of Service Development for the Global Institute of Forensic Research. MHS is a training, research, science and data analytics company that has published many of the gold standard science, software, and assessments in the criminal justice industry. Katrina has worked with Public Safety organizations from around the world to leverage training, research, and data analytics to increase public safety.