Cathy Spatz Widom is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts col ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. She is known for her research on long term consequences of early childhood physical and sexual abuse and child neglect. Widom received the

AAAS Prize for Behavioral Science Research The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

in 1989, the Edwin H. Sutherland Award in 2013, and the

Stockholm Prize in Criminology The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international prize in the field of criminology, established under the aegis of the Swedish Ministry of Justice. It has a permanent endowment in the trust of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation. ...

in 2016.

Biography

Cathy Spatz Widom received her

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in child development and family relationships at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in Ithaca, New York. She went to pursue her Master and

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees in psychology at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

. She is currently Distinguished Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. Widom's primary focus is on the long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect, and area in which she has published numerous papers on the

cycle of violence The term cycle of violence refers to repeated and dangerous acts of violence as a cyclical pattern,National Institute of Justice The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Offic ...

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primar ...

, and

National Institute on Drug Abuse The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a United States federal government research institute whose mission is to "advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual ...

. Widom was co-editor of the ''

Journal of Quantitative Criminology The ''Journal of Quantitative Criminology'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of criminology. It was established in 1985 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media. The editors-in-chief are John MacDonald and Greg ...

'' from 2010 to 2013.

Research

Widom is known for her research pertaining to early childhood abuse (physical and sexual) and neglect in relation to later adversity, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, teenage pregnancy, intimate partner violence, prostitution, and exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. She collected one of the only longitudinal datasets in the world on child abuse and neglect; throughout her career she has developed innovative methodologies, most recently adding biological markers to understanding pathways linking early abuse and neglect to adult outcomes. Recently, she published her second paper in ''Science'' on the intergenerational transmission of child abuse and neglect.

Representative publications

*Gilbert, R., Widom, C. S., Browne, K., Fergusson, D., Webb, E., & Janson, S. (2009). Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high-income countries. ''The Lancet, 373''(9657), pages 68–81. *Widom, C. S. (1989). The cycle of violence. ''Science, 244''(4901), pages 160–166. *Widom, C. S. (1999). Posttraumatic stress disorder in abused and neglected children grown up. ''American Journal of Psychiatry, 156''(8), pages 1223–1229. *Widom, C. S., DuMont, K., & Czaja, S. J. (2007). A prospective investigation of major depressive disorder and comorbidity in abused and neglected children grown up. ''Archives of General Psychiatry, 64''(1), pages 49–56. *Wilson, H. W., & Widom, C. S. (2011). Pathways from childhood abuse and neglect to HIV-risk sexual behavior in middle adulthood. ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79''(2), pages 236–246.

References

External links

Faculty homepage
at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY * {{DEFAULTSORT:Widom, Cathy Spatz Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American psychologists American women psychologists Cornell University alumni Brandeis University alumni John Jay College of Criminal Justice faculty Winners of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology