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Thu, 19 Jan 2017 18:33:03 +0000

Jennifer Murphy awarded grant from Center for Rural Pennsylvania admin Thu, 01/19/2017 - 13:33 January 19, 2017
READING, Pa. — Jennifer Murphy, associate professor of criminal justice and coordinator of the criminal justice degree program at Penn State Berks, recently received a grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. The grant is for a project titled “Comparing Rural and Urban Drug Use and Violence in the Pennsylvania Youth Survey.”

In this study, Murphy will analyze the 2015 Pennsylvania Youth Survey to identify differences between rural and urban schools in substance use and violence. She also will analyze the data to identify trends and any school-specific programs that may have contributed to decreased rates of substance use and violence.

Murphy's research interests include drug policy and the simultaneous medicalization/criminalization of drug addiction. Her recent book, "Illness or Deviance? Drug Courts, Drug Treatment, and the Ambiguity of Addiction" (Temple University Press, 2015), examines a drug court and affiliated drug-treatment programs to see how addiction was constructed in each setting. Her current research project is looking at how a person's framework for understanding addiction influences their opinion on how to handle drug offenders.

For more information, contact Murphy at 610-396-6050 or via email at jxm1192@psu.edu.