{"id":6025,"date":"2021-03-16T10:16:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T15:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=6025"},"modified":"2021-03-16T10:16:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T15:16:17","slug":"uw-platteville-criminal-justice-major-researches-treatment-court","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-platteville-criminal-justice-major-researches-treatment-court\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Platteville criminal justice major researches treatment court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Dr. Staci Strobl and Jacob Wehler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen you are doing research every single thing matters,\u201d said Jacob Wehler, a University of Wisconsin-Platteville\u00a0criminal justice major<\/a>. \u201cIf you don\u2019t pay attention to all the little details, you could be missing a whole plethora of conclusions or details that could sway your results.\u201d<\/p>\n

This semester, Wehler, a senior from Black Earth, Wisconsin, received the\u00a0Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity Scholarship<\/a>. He is examining the relationship between participation engagement through written assignments with drug and OWI court participants in the Grant County treatment court system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at how many sentences each participant is writing in those written assignments to see how engaged they are with those assignments,\u201d said Wehler. \u201cDoes it actually matter if the person is writing more sentences and more engaged? Is that going to affect their recidivism level? Will they be likely to offend or not in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wehler posed these questions while assisting three criminal justice professors with their research: Dr. Staci Strobl, Dr. Nancy Gartner and Dr. Valerie Stackman. According to Strobl, they received two grants totaling $30,000 from the Grant County and Unified Counseling Services to evaluate whether the local drug and alcohol courts work in preventing criminal recidivism.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Jacob]\u00a0has shown true commitment to his research and stands to make an original contribution to the field of corrections in criminal justice. This is outstanding for an undergraduate researcher.” \u2013 Dr. Staci Strobl<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Jacob is an incredibly talented student who while working on research with criminal justice professors identified his own research question that he could ask of the court data he helped to collect,\u201d said Strobl who is also Wehler\u2019s research faculty advisor. \u201cHe has shown true commitment to his research and stands to make an original contribution to the field of corrections in criminal justice. This is outstanding for an undergraduate researcher.”<\/p>\n

Since January, Wehler has been analyzing documents and personal testimony. Along with his qualitative research, Wehler has worked closely with the Grant County drug treatment coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of trust,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing on the research team with my professors created a solid relationship with the drug treatment court coordinator. It really solidified how much it means to be able talk to someone and create trust in the professional field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wehler expects to have his research project finished this month. His conclusion thus far is, \u201cThe preliminary results depict that as participants become more engaged with written assignments, the less likely they are to recidivate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout this undergraduate research, Wehler said he has faced obstacles, but has learned even more about the court system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is the gray area. Can I decipher what is the noise of the project versus what\u2019s the actual substance of the project,\u201d he said. \u201cThat daily battle is really enjoyable. I love the grind of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Wehler prepares to graduate in May, he\u2019s going to use this experience as he applies to graduate school.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing this research and being funded by the undergraduate research scholarship allows students to see how research happens at UW-Platteville; it\u2019s very important,\u201d said Wehler. \u201cEverything I have learned through my tenure here, I have applied it all while researching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen you are doing research every single thing matters,\u201d said Jacob Wehler, a University of Wisconsin-Platteville\u00a0criminal justice major. \u201cIf you don\u2019t pay attention to all the little details, you could be missing a whole plethora of conclusions or details that could sway your results.\u201d This semester, Wehler, a senior from Black Earth, Wisconsin, received the\u00a0Undergraduate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[93],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-6025","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-platteville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/6025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=6025"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=6025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}