{"id":49260,"date":"2025-02-24T14:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=49260"},"modified":"2025-02-25T09:08:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T15:08:19","slug":"judith-zatkin-abuse-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/24\/judith-zatkin-abuse-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Globe Highlights Professor’s Insights on Abuse Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Judith Zatkin, assistant professor of psychology, provided expert insight for a front-page Boston Globe feature published in December 2024. Drawing on years of experience in sexual violence prevention — work she began as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan — Zatkin shared her research on how grooming patterns unfold within youth-serving organizations.<\/p>\n

Zatkin earned her doctorate in community psychology, focusing on the organizational and cultural factors that either permit or prevent sexual abuse. In her research and her journal article, “Powerful Perpetrators: Hidden in Plain Sight,” she has examined the commonalities in high-profile abuse cases, including those involving Larry Nassar and Jerry Sandusky.<\/p>\n

“We spend a lot of time in places like schools, summer camps and hospitals,” she said. “Policy, culture and community practices play a central role in creating safe environments. Having transparent reporting procedures and clear consequences can deter harm.”<\/p>\n

Central to her work is the recognition that power dynamics matter. Zatkin is concerned when powerful individuals — large donors or high-ranking staff — are allowed to sidestep rules.<\/p>\n

“That double standard creates a culture where accountability slips,” she said.<\/p>\n

Her ideal vision includes consistent training on how to spot and report abuse, combined with a reminder that “it’s adults, not minors, who are responsible for preventing sexual violence.”<\/p>\n

\"Judith<\/p>\n

In the classroom, Zatkin incorporates her findings directly into courses such as Human Sexuality, The Psychology of Women and Gender and Sexual Violence Prevention, where “students learn the real-world implications of organizational policy and culture,” she said.<\/p>\n

Her specialized Sexual Violence Prevention course, next offered in Spring 2026, immerses students in examining strategies that could make youth-serving organizations safer.<\/p>\n

“My students conduct their own research projects, assessing climate and prevention measures in their chosen contexts,” she said.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Zatkin plans to develop trainings and best practices with local organizations. She is also pursuing a grant to understand how sexual misconduct affects non-traditional and online students — populations often left out of mainstream campus initiatives.<\/p>\n

“I want to help smaller regional institutions build their capacity to support all students,” she said.<\/p>\n

Through her research, teaching and recent media spotlight in the Boston Globe, Zatkin continues to push for policies that make harm prevention a collective responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Judith Zatkin, assistant professor of psychology, provided expert insight for a front-page Boston Globe feature published in December 2024. Drawing on years of experience in sexual violence prevention — work she began as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan — Zatkin shared her research on how grooming patterns unfold within youth-serving organizations. Zatkin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":528,"featured_media":49261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1025,3,977,872,25,1042,980,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-integrity","category-academics","category-faculty-news","category-homepage","category-people","category-psychology","category-strategic-plan","category-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49267,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49260\/revisions\/49267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}