A group of experts and the families of both victims and offenders – including the parents of Colorado shooter James Holmes – will gather at Penn State Beaver in October to discuss the links between mental health and violence and the ways we may be able to curb the bloodshed.
Five students from Penn State Beaver, Shenango and New Kensington are helping to implement Bridges to Life, a restorative justice program, in Beaver County. As the inaugural cohort of Beaver County-based facilitators, the students will not only go into the Beaver County Jail to work with inmates, but they will also be responsible for training future volunteers of the Bridges program and extending the reach of restorative justice.
Penn State Beaver Associate Professor Mari Pierce is studying the transcripts of every death-eligible case in the state of Oregon from 2000 to 2010 to see if and how juries are influenced. Her findings could change the way capital cases are tried.
Beaver administration of justice instructor LaVarr McBride received a Schreyer grant, which he hopes will be "an opportunity to involve our students in hands-on criminal justice" and help crime victims and offenders connect and heal.
An active shooter scenario in the Student Union Building gives Penn State Beaver administration of justice students a closer look at criminal justice in the community.
