Ashley Jackson

Dr. Ashley Jackson is an assistant professor at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. Much of Dr. Jackson’s research has been motivated by her post-MSW macro practice experience in research, program development, and policy advocacy focused on criminal legal system issues and public safety at the local and national levels. Dr. Jackson’s three key focal areas of research are 1) early contact with punitive actors, namely the impact of police interactions on youth, 2) the escalation and persistence of these experiences to state-sanctioned violence (e.g., police violence), both historically and presently, and 3) how these experiences impact how youth and families make sense of the criminal legal system and how they prepare for interactions with punitive actors as a result. Dr. Jackson is a Fulbright Scholar, has earned a Ph.D. in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, an MSW from the University of Chicago, and a BS in Administration of Justice from George Mason University.

• Human Behavior and the Social Environment