
OUR MISSION
$4.5 million in total research awards in fiscal year 2020.
Center Affiliates: 22 Faculty Members & 25 Students
SUPPORTED BY THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES, ANDREW YOUNG SCHOOL OF POLICY STUDIES, & SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Interdisciplinary Research Center

The Center focuses on perpetrators and/or victims of interpersonal violence and addresses the causes, effects, treatment, and prevention of all types of violence, including (but not limited to) domestic violence, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, physical child abuse, and violent crime.
Research on the Rise

The Center facilitates cross-disciplinary research via its network of scholars who communicate regularly and with a shared vision and goal. Because of this network, in the past year, collaborations among CRIV faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and/or students resulted in 10 external grant submissions (total amount requested: $19,457,784), 3 external grants that were funded (total costs: $4,542,702), 14 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, and 8 presentations at national or international conferences in 2020.
What Are the Advantages of Interdisciplinary Studies?
Interdisciplinary collaboration draws from two or more academic disciplines to facilitate discourse, generate innovative new scholarship, and support the training of new scholars in the field. The Center’s interdisciplinary focus promotes programming to achieve these aims in a variety of ways, including (1) A Distinguished Speaker Series [https://violence.gsu.edu/distinguished-speaker-series/] which features nationally recognized scholars, (2) a small grants program [https://violence.gsu.edu/seed-grant/] that supports innovative research ideas with a high potential to make a significant scientific or community impact, and (3) a Student Seminar Series [https://violence.gsu.edu/student-seminar-series/] led by Center faculty which exposes students to a range of interdisciplinary research on interpersonal violence.
OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
- Mercy Care
- American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
- Project Healthy Grandparents
- Atlanta Police Department’s Atlanta Police Leadership Initiative
- CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Scientific Advisory Board
- National Alliance Home Visiting Model Alliance
- Gwinnett County Health Department
- Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory – Violence Prevention Task Force
- Georgia Commission on Family Violence
- Georgia Department of Public Health Injury Prevention Program
- Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Research & Innovation Seed Grant Awardees
Principal Investigator
“Developing a Social Media Marketing Campaign to Reduce Violence Against Gender Minorities”
Dissertation Research Grant Awardee
“Exploring Sexual Minority Stress Related Aggression”
Co-Principal Investigators
Amanda Gilmore, PhD., Laura Salazar, PhD
Welcome, new colleagues!
Dr. Melissa Osborne is a Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions. She earned an MPH and a PhD in Public Health from Georgia State University. Her research focuses on child maltreatment, parent behavior, and adolescent health risk behavior, and related interventions. She also has an interest in firearm research with the goal of better understanding risk and protective factors associated with firearms and violence. Her dissertation work examined in-home firearm access and parent-child relationship quality as potential mediators in the relation between early child maltreatment victimization and weapon carrying in adolescence.
Dr. Ruschelle Marie Leone is a Research Assistant Professor, Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Georgia State University (GSU). She completed her predoctoral clinical internship in substance abuse at the Medical University of South Carolina and her postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Public Health at GSU. The overarching goal of her research program is to inform and develop intervention programming to reduce alcohol-related sexual and intimate partner violence. She uses experimental and survey methods to elucidate (1) the mechanisms of alcohol-related interpersonal violence perpetration and (2) the individual and situational factors that inhibit or encourage bystander behavior. Additionally, her work focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of hegemonic masculinity.
Dr. Konrad Bresin is a Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences. His program of research seeks to identify mechanisms that are involved in the initiation and continuance of behaviors that lead to short-term relief but have long-term negative consequences (hereafter dysregulated behaviors) such as nonsuicidal self-injury, substance use, and aggression. Specifically, his work examines the roles of emotions, cognitions, and their interaction as antecedents to these behaviors and how engaging in these behaviors affect emotion. He uses multiple methods including laboratory-based experiments, ambulatory assessment, and meta-analysis. The majority of his work has focused on understanding the role of negative emotion in dysregulated behaviors.
Dr. Natasha De Veauuse Brown joined the Department of Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University as a Research Assistant Professor in January 2021. She also works in the Center for Leadership in Disability, whose mission includes translating research into sustainable community practices that lead to independent, inclusive, and productive lives for people with disabilities. Dr. De Veauuse Brown’s research focuses primarily on risk behavior reduction and improving the quality of life of children, adolescents, and young adults, with an emphasis on sexual behaviors, violence, mental health, and substance abuse.