Kayleigh A. Stanek

Indigenous College Students' Violent Victimization, Help-Seeking, Service Utilization, and Needs: A Mixed-Methods Approach

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Assistant Professor

Kayleigh A. Stanek (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on criminal justice and societal responses to victims and victimization, specifically sexual assault, and domestic violence.

Her work pays particular interest to victimization among special populations such as college students, Indigenous peoples, and other minority groups. Among these groups, she is particularly interested in exploring victims’ needs in terms of programming and criminal justice responses. Her work also focuses on community-based participatory research to create policy and programming recommendations.

Her previous research has explored the relationship between police trust and procedural justice on sexual assault victims’ reporting likelihood. Specifically, her work examined how unjust treatment impacts a victim’s decision to report their victimization to the police again in the future. She was also an integral part of the Arizona State study on the prevalence of the Missing and Murder of Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) mandated by HB 2570.

Currently, Kayleigh’s dissertation focuses on the lived experiences of Indigenous college students who have experienced victimization or trauma and their help-seeking behaviors. She takes a holistic approach to understanding victims’ service needs and help-seeking behaviors by incorporating perspectives from Indigenous students and staff/faculty that work with them. She utilizes original mixed-methods data to not only understand the lived experiences and challenges that Indigenous students face but offers solutions and recommendations for improving the experiences of Indigenous students who have experienced trauma or victimization and those who work with them.

Beyond research, Kayleigh is the Lab and Research Projects Manager for the Research on Violent Victimization Lab in the School. She manages a number of different research projects and a team of undergraduate and graduate research assistants. She is also a strong supporter of community initiatives focused on MMIP and reducing violence within Indigenous communities.

Kayleigh is interested in an Assistant Professor position that focuses on the equal importance of research and teaching for students interested in criminology and criminal justice.