Education, accomplishments, and related professional information for this faculty member can be found in his vita.

My clinical work primarily has focused on assessment and treatment of youth involved in the juvenile justice system. This work has included a combination of individualized assessment and treatment services to justice-involved youth and their families. Additionally, my clinical practice has included consultation services to local and state juvenile probation and detention programs in the development of mental health service delivery systems for justice-involved youth. My clinical work in the area of assessment has focused on disposition assessments of juvenile offenders that are designed to identify mental health needs and delinquency risk factors. Over the past five years, I have developed a specialized clinical focus in the assessment and treatment of youth who have been charged with sexual offenses. This work has involved conducting post-disposition assessments of risk and amenability to treatment, providing expert testimony to juvenile courts, and development of treatment protocols for this population. I have also provided a combination of individual, group, and family-based treatment services to youth who are on probation or in secure settings due to sexually offending behavior. I am licensed to practice psychology in Louisiana and New York. I am a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychology-Law Society.

Based on my training in clinical-forensic psychology and the law, my research interests are closely connected to my clinical interest and practice. Broadly defined, my research interests are in the areas of assessment and treatment of legal defendants with an emphasis on justice-involved youth. My primary research interest in this area involves investigating the clinical utility of general and specialized assessment instruments that identifying mental health problems and delinquency risk. My interest in this area has developed from the belief that psychologists who are responsible for assessing and treating justice-involved youth must base their work on empirically supported decision tools and interventions. I have research interests in the areas of juvenile risk assessment/management, juvenile psychopathy, and juvenile sexual offending. Recent research projects have included ongoing investigation and refinement of scales that screen for serious mental health problems in juvenile offenders, investigation of a mental health sub-typing strategy for female justice-involved youth, and testing the psychometric properties of specialized instruments used to establish risk and treatment needs for specialized adolescent offender subpopulations. An additional area of research focus has been examining the relationship between developmental factors and adolescent legal decision-making capacities. Selected publications reflecting these interests are noted below.

Cruise, K.R. (2006). Special issues in juvenile justice. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 2, 177-204.

Colwell, L.H., Cruise, K.R., Guy, L.S., McCoy, W.M., Fernandez, K., & Ross, H.H. (2005). The influence of psychosocial maturity on male juvenile offenders’ comprehension and understanding of the Miranda warning. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 33, 444-454.

Cruise, K. R., & Glindmeyer, D. (2003). Callous and unemotional traits in a juvenile offender: A clinical case study. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 3, 73-83.

Cruise, K. R., Lyons, P. M., Colwell, L. H., & Baker M. (2003). Prototypical analysis of adolescent psychopathy: The juvenile justice perspective. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 21, 829-846.

Edens, J. F., Cruise, K. R., & Buffington-Vollum, J. K. (2001). Forensic and correctional applications of the Personality Assessment Inventory. Behavioral Science & the Law, 19, 519-543.

Edens , J. F., Skeem, J. L., Cruise, K. R., & Cauffman, E. (2001). The assessment of juvenile psychopathy and its association with violence: A critical review. Behavioral Science & the Law, 19, 53-80.

Rogers, R. & Cruise, K. R. (2000). Malingering and deception among psychopaths. In C. Gacono (Ed.). The clinical and forensic assessment of psychopathy: A practitioner’s guide (269-284). New York: LEA.

American Psychological Association
Association for Psychological Science