Jessica Wells, an assistant professor of criminal justice in the School of Public Service, was featured in a recent KBOI-TV piece exploring post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among correctional officers in Idaho. In PTSD in Idaho’s Prisons: ‘I was most comfortable when chaos was breaking out’, Wells said that for correctional officers, getting help is key to healing after facing trauma.
“Prevention in PTSD is really important,” said Wells. “And one of the things that you can do to prevent that is to have training. So you can train, and throughout the country, the most crucial officer training is to prevent traumatic events, it is safety, security, how do we prevent this kind of thing from happening.”
Wells also authored an article in the Feb. 18 edition of the journal Crime and Delinquency. “Examining How Testosterone and Cortisol Influence the Relationship Between Strain, Negative Emotions, and Antisocial Behavior: A Gendered Analysis” provides a test of general strain theory by examining the relations between strain, negative emotions and biological hormones in the prediction of antisocial behavior across gender.
Findings from a diverse sample of 512 undergraduate students revealed that strain and the ratio between testosterone to cortisol reactivity are associated with higher levels of antisocial behavior in males, but not females.