Elizabeth Adams

  • College of Liberal Arts

    Criminal Justice

    Instructor

Office Location

Gladfelter Hall, 5th Floor

Expertise

Correctional Evaluation, Crime and Substance Use Cessation, Motherhood, Normative Beliefs and Identity, Communication, Mixed Methods

Biography

Elizabeth A. Adams started as a faculty member in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University in 2020. She completed her doctoral studies at Michigan State University’s (MSU) School of Criminal Justice where she managed data collection with the Detroit Gang Unit and with Michigan Department of Corrections. She is interested in advancing research on the impact of criminal justice system processing on individuals, and in identifying correctional approaches that improve the circumstances of justice-involved individuals. Most of her research is employed using a mixed method approach involving the examination of a large number (n = 165 – 402) of justice-involved women’s qualitative reports of their experiences on supervision in relation to their reports on outcomes or quantitative measures such as risk factors and recidivism. Her recent research is based on a collaboration with faculty in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. This research examines the effect of different types of social support and communication styles that supervision agents use with their female clients on probation and parole regarding issues that are common among justice-involved women (i.e. substance use, employment, parenting stress, child custody issues).  

Elizabeth is a MSU College of Social Science Research Fellow (2015) and an Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Doctoral Summit Fellow (2018). In 2016 she received a Top 4 Paper Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division at the International Communication Association’s conference in Japan. She has also received multiple awards to support her development from the School of Criminal Justice at MSU including the Criminal Justice 75th Anniversary Scholarship and the Criminal Justice Alumni Graduate Endowed Assistantship. Her work has been published in British Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Women and Criminal Justice, Communication Studies, and in Journal of Applied Communication Research. 

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications

  • Adams, E. A. (2020). Intensive parenting beliefs and risks for recidivism among justice-involved mothers. Women and Criminal Justice. 1-20. doi:10.1080/08974454.2020.1741487
  • Adams, E. A., Morash, M., Cobbina, J. E., & Smith, S. W. (2017). Women’s experiences of motherhood, violations of supervision requirements and arrests. British Journal of Criminology, 57, 1420-1441. doi:10.1093/bjc/azw092
  • Holmstrom, A. J., Adams, E. A., Morash, M., Smith, S. W., & Cobbina, J. E. (2017) Supportive messages female offenders receive from probation and parole officers about substance use: Message perceptions and
  • effects. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44, 1496-1517. doi:10.1177/00938548177233
  • Morash, M., Adams, E. A., Goodson, M. V., Cobbina, J. E., & Smith, S. W. (2019). Prison experiences and identity in women’s life stories. In A. Leverentz, Chen, E., & J. Christian, Moving beyond recidivism: Expanding approaches to research on prisoner reentry and reintegration. NYU Press. 
  • Roddy, A. L., Morash, M., Adams, E. A., Holmstrom, A. J., Smith, S.W., & Cobbina, J. E. (2019). The nature and effects of messages that women receive from probation and parole agents in conversations about employment. Criminal Justice and Behavior. doi:10.1177/0093854818811385
  • Smith, S. W., Morash, M., Walling, B., Adams, E. A., & Holmstrom, A. J. (2019). Precursors to probation and parole agent intent to send informational, emotional, and esteem social support messages to female clients. Journal of Applied Communication Research. doi: 10.1080/00909882.2019.1615632 
  • Smith, S. W., Morash, M., Holmstrom, A., Walling, B., & Adams, E. A. (2019). How interpersonal communication improves the lives of women on probation and parole. In S.W. Wilson and S.W. Smith (Eds.), Reflections on Interpersonal Communication. San Diego: Cognella.
  • Smith, S. W., Morash, M., Walling, B., & Adams, E. A. (2020). Precursors to probation and parole agent communication style with female clients. 1-23, Communication Studies. doi:10.1080/10510974.2020.1725080

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Corrections - Fall 2020
  • Criminology - Summer 2019 (Online - Michigan State University)