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Shelly Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences and Director of Grants and Program Development at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. She came to the University of Virginia from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, in the Violence and Victimization Division. Her work over the past 13 years has focused on family violence.
Her research interests have evolved from a focus on child maltreatment, to an interested in intimate partner violence and child maltreatment, to elder abuse. Her current research projects include: Risk markers for sexual vulnerability and violence in prison: Development of a risk classification system for male and female inmates (Janet Warren, Ann Loper, & Shelly Jackson; funded by the National Institute of Justice), Financial Abuse of the Elderly vs. Other Forms of Elder Abuse: Assessing Their Dynamics, Risk Factors, and Society’s Response (Shelly Jackson & Tom Hafemeister; funded by the National Institute of Justice), and A Comprehensive Evaluation of Charlottesville’s Child Advocacy Center. Dr. Jackson teaches a course entitled Family Violence Across the Lifespan.
Dr. Jackson received her doctorate in developmental psychology in 1996 from the University of Vermont, completed a NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship in Law and Psychology at the University of Nebraska in 1998, and was a Society for Research in Child Development Executive Branch Policy Fellow at the National Institute of Justice in 1998-1999.