Jacqueline B. Helfgott, PhD

Helfgott CV 24 (PDF)

Biography

Jacqueline Helfgott is a Professor and Director of the Crime & Justice Research Center in the Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics at Seattle University. She holds a PhD and MA in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University and a BA in Psychology and Society & Justice from the University of Washington. Her research specializations include criminal behavior, psychopathy, copycat crime, corrections/reentry, public safety, police-community relations, crisis intervention in law enforcement, and community/restorative justice. She has served as principal investigator on applied criminal justice research in policing, courts, corrections, and victim services. She is author of Copycat Crime: How Media, Technology, and Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behavior and Violence (Bloomsbury, 2023), No Remorse: Psychopathy and Criminal Justice (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2019), Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice (Sage, 2008), Editor of Criminal Psychology, Volumes 1-4 (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2013), coauthor of Offender Reentry: Beyond Crime and Punishment (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013) and Women Leading Justice: Experiences and Insights (Routledge, 2019). Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, Aggression and Violent Behavior, Criminal Justice & Behavior, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, Federal Probation, International Review of Victimology, Journal of Community Corrections, Corrections: Policy and Practice, Criminal Justice Policy Review, and the Journal of Qualitative Criminology. She has served as principal investigator on research funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Arnold Foundation, Community Oriented Police Services (COPS), and the Open Society Institute including the Seattle Women’s Reentry Evaluation, the Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice, Longitudinal Evaluation of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s Guardian Law Enforcement Training, the Seattle Police Department’s Officer/Mental Health Practitioner Partnership Pilot Program, and development, implementation, and evaluation of "Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice" (CVORJ) a prison-based encounter program at the Washington State Reformatory. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at Seattle University including The Psychopath, Criminal Justice Theory, Typologies of Crime & Criminal Behavior, Criminology, Trafficking, and Murder, Movies & Copycat Crime. She is principal investigator on the Seattle Police Department’s Micro-Community Policing Plans/Seattle Public Safety Survey, the “Before the Badge” Community-Police Dialogues, the Longitudinal Evaluation of the Seattle Police “Before the Badge” Training Program, and the Denver Neighborhood Safety Plans/Denver Public Safety Survey. She serves on the Seattle Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Sexual Assault and System Reform, the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Committee, and regularly contributes to public discourse on crime and justice through op-eds and media interviews and. She recently won the National Institute of Justice Innovations in Measuring Community Perceptions Challenge. She is a member of the American Society of Criminology, the Western Society of Criminology, the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and the Association for Threat Assessment Professionals.

Professional Website

Teaching and Research Interests

Education

Ph.D.1992, Pennsylvania State University; Administration of Justice/Graduate Minor, Psychology
M.A.1991, Pennsylvania State University; Administration of Justice/Graduate Minor, Psychology
B.A.1988, University of Washington; Society & Justice and Psychology

Courses Taught• Criminal Justice Theory (Graduate) 

• Typologies of Crime & Criminal Behavior (Graduate)
• The Psychopath (Undergraduate/Graduate)
• Forensic Psychology
• Murder Movies & Copycat Crime
• Introduction to Criminal Justice
• Forensic Science
• Criminal Profiling
• Deviance & Social Control
• Criminal Justice Research Methods
• Gender, Race, & Crime
• Victimology
• Law, Society, & Justice
• Punishment & Social Theory
• Adult Corrections
• Juvenile Corrections
• Correctional Counseling
• Probation & Parole
• Correctional Organization and Management
• Police Organization & Behavior
• Criminology

Research Interests

• Criminal Behavior
• Psychopathy
• Corrections
• Offender reentry
• Restorative Justice

Selected Publications (See CV for full list of publications)

Books

Helfgott, J.B. (2019). No Remorse: Psychopathy and Criminal Justice. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO.

Helfgott, J.B. (Ed.) (2013). Criminal Psychology, Volumes 1-4. Westport, CT: Praeger/ ABC-CLIO.

Helfgott, J.B. (2008). Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Gunnison, E. & Helfgott, J.B. (2019). Women Leading Justice: Experiences and Insights. New York: Routledge.

Gunnison, E. & Helfgott, J.B. (2013) Offender Reentry: Beyond Crime and Punishment. Boulder, C: Lynne Rienner.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Helfgott, J.B. & Gunnison, E. (2020). Gender-Responsive Reentry Services for Women Leaving Prison: The IF Project’s Seattle Women’s Reentry Initiative. Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research

Helfgott, J.B., Strah, B., Atherley, L, & Neidhart, E. (2020). Evaluation of CIT components of guardian law enforcement training. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.

Helfgott, J.B., Parkin, W.S., Fisher, C., & Diaz, A. (2020). Misdemeanor arrests and community perceptions of fear of crime in Seattle. Journal of Criminal Justice, 69, 1-19.

Helfgott, J.B., Gunnison, E., Sumner, J., Collins, P., & Rice, S.K. (2019). “If Someone Would Have Showed Me”: Identifying Pivotal Points in Pathways to Crime and Incarceration through Prisoner Self-Narratives. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 1-26.

Helfgott, J.B., Parkin, W.S., & Fisher, C. (2019). Crisis-flagged Misdemeanors in Seattle: Arrests, Referrals, Charges, and Case Dispositions. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 20(2), 59-85.

Helfgott, J.B., Gunnison, E., Murtagh, A.; Navejar, B. (2018). BADASSES: The Rise of Women in Criminal Justice. Women & Criminal Justice, 28(4), 1-27.

Helfgott, J.B., Strah, B.M., Pollock, J., Atherley, L.T., & Vinson, J. (2018). A qualitative approach to understanding guardian models of policing. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, 6(1), 93-120.

Helfgott, J.B., Gunnison, E., Collins, P., & Rice, S.K. (2018). The power of personal narratives in crime prevention and reentry: Process evaluation of the Seattle Police Department’s IF Project. Corrections Policy, Practice and Research, 3 (2), 1-24.

Helfgott, J.B. (2016). Prison-based cognitive behavioral treatment programs – A Mechanism of panoptic control. Commentary on Jennifer A. Schlosser’s (2015) Narratives and Discursive Discipline in Prison: Rewriting Personal Histories through Cognitive-Behavioral Programs. Journal of Theoretical & Philosophical Criminology, 8(2), 148-159.

Helfgott, J.B., Hickman, M.J., & Labossiere, A. (2016) A descriptive evaluation of the Seattle Police Department’s Crisis response team officer/mental health professional partnership pilot program. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 44, 109-122.

Helfgott, J.B. (2015) Criminal behavior and the copycat effect: Review of the literature and theoretical framework for empirical investigation. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 22, 46-64.

Grants

Principal Investigator (with E. Gunnison, Co-PI). Evaluation of the South King County Pretrial Services Pilot/Pretrial Assessment and Linkages Services (PALS). King County Adult and Juvenile Detention. (2020-Present).

Principal Investigator (with M. Hickman, Co-PI). Longitudinal Evaluation of the Effect of Guardian Training for Law enforcement Officers – Longitudinal Continuation. (2014-2020).

Principal Investigator (with W. Parkin/Co-PI). Research Network on Misdemeanor Justice Network. (2017-2020).

Principal Investigator (with E. Gunnison, Co-PI). Seattle Women’s Second Chance Project/Evaluation of Seattle Women's Reentry. Bureau of Justice Assistance (2016-2019).

Principal Investigator. Seattle Police Crisis Intervention Team-SPD Culture Survey (2015). Principal Investigator (w/M. Hickman). Crisis Intervention Team/Mental Health Partnership Pilot Evaluation (2011).

Principal Investigator. Citizens, Victims, and Offenders Restoring Justice (M. Lovell & C. Lawrence, Co-PIs) (1997-2000)