Examining the Intersection of Radicalism, Activism, and Gun Violence
Examining the Intersection of Radicalism, Activism, and Gun Violence
Nicholas D. Thomson Sophie L. Kjærvik Victoria Blondell Daren Fisher a Department of Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USAb Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USAc Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Homeland Security, Hampton University, Hampton, VA, USANicholas D. Thomson, PhD, is Director of Research for the VCU Health Injury and Violence Prevention Program and Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a forensic research psychologist with more than a decade of clinical and research experience focused on violence, radicalization, and firearm-related behaviors. His work integrates developmental psychopathology to examine risk and protective factors for violence, and he has led federally funded research supported by the CDC and NIH.Sophie L. Kjærvik, PhD, is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Section for Violence and Abuse at the Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Kjærvik’s research focuses on both perpetrators and victims of violence. She investigates personality traits, anger regulation, and the causes and consequences of aggression and violence, while also examining how victimization impacts health and work participation. Through this dual focus, her work aims to advance prevention strategies and interventions that reduce violence and support those affected by it.Victoria Blondell is a first-year Clinical Psychology graduate student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She earned her B.S in Psychology with a minor in Criminology and Justice from Loyola University New Orleans and worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Injury and Violence Prevention Research Lab at VCU Health. Her research focuses on the trajectories and outcomes of trauma exposure among marginalized and justice-involved youth, with an emphasis on risk and protective factors linking violent victimization to behavioral outcomes and strategies to promote resilience.Daren Fisher, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Homeland Security at Hampton University. His research examines the relationship between government actions and subsequent terrorism, criminological theory, policing, and crime prevention. Dr. Fisher specializes in empirically testing the predictions of criminological theory to better inform government policies that aim to reduce crime using econometric methods and qualitative approaches. Dr. Fisher’s research has been published in the Annual Review of Criminology, Justice Quarterly, the European Journal of Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Women & Criminal Justice, and the American Journal of Criminal Justice.