Psychology and public policy: A 50-year adventure.

This article provides an overview of my research on children, families, and the law over the past 50 years, while also providing the context for psychological research and action during this time period. The general framework requires using autobiographical information to understand my primary goal of contributing to a research base for intervention and policy change, especially within the juvenile justice system. Overall, my research and action endeavors have been related to prevention, children, and the legal system with changing foci over time: (a) changing juvenile correctional settings, (b) understanding and preventing child sexual abuse, (c) intervening with violent juveniles, (d) exploiting the myth of extreme recidivism rates among juvenile sex offenders, (e) understanding decision-making among youth in legal contexts, and (f) examining violence in teen dating relationships. The article concludes with a brief discussion of dissemination of research findings to policymakers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).