Areas of Expertise

• Social welfare polices
• Families and the criminal justice system

Key Findings

• The services provided by the faith-based organization (FBO), including assistance with gaining employment and obtaining social benefits, are frequently sought by both returning prisoners and people living in under-resourced neighborhoods. MORE
• Prisoner reentry poses unique challenges and the potential for conflict among partners that, if not effectively managed, can lead to violence. MORE
• Female victims of domestic violence often view the abuse as a personal matter and attempt to resolve the issue themselves rather than seek the help of others, particularly law enforcement. MORE
• The majority of children of incarcerated parents do not exhibit delinquency or antisocial behavior, but they do need extra help to succeed in school. MORE

Biography

Creasie Finney Hairston, Professor and Dean at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago is an expert in families and the criminal justice system and social welfare polices and services.

Hairston served as Associate Dean at the Indiana University School of Social Work and on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, West Virginia University and the State University of New York at Albany. She worked with male prisoners at Tennessee prisons to develop parent education and support groups and in 2006 received the International Community Corrections Association’s E.B. Henderson Presidential Award. She is the editor of the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation and is on the board of directors for Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), the African American Family Research Institute and the Illinois Academy of Criminology.

She has been published in numerous academic journals, including the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Women, Girls, & Criminal Justice and Administration in Social Work.

Hairston received her Ph.D. and M.S.S.A. from Case Western Reserve University and B.S. from Bluefield State College.