Education
Dr. Najdowski received her BA in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and her MA and PhD in social psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She joined the University at Albany in 2013.
About
Dr. Najdowski’s research centers on examining the psychological causes of miscarriages of justice, which occur either when innocent individuals are mistakenly caught up in the criminal justice system or when guilty individuals wrongly evade punishment. She is specifically interested in understanding the social psychological conditions that produce these errors for marginalized, vulnerable, and victimized populations. Her studies address basic social psychological phenomena—stereotype threat, racial bias, stereotype content, attribution theory, social influences, stigma, psychosocial maturity, social reactions, structural patriarchy—while also shedding light on important real-world issues—racial and ethnic disparities in police contacts, false confessions, and wrongful convictions; deterrence of adolescent offending and treatment of adolescent offenders in the criminal legal system; and reactions to sexual violence against women. Dr. Najdowski’s interdisciplinary approach generates empirical knowledge that can both advance psychological science and improve equity in law, policy, and practice.
Dr. Najdowski’s research has been supported with over $460,000 in funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. Her scholarship has been recognized with several nationally competitive awards, and published in leading journals in her field, including Law and Human Behavior and Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. She also co-edited two books, Children as Victims, Witnesses, and Offenders: Psychological Science and the Law with Guilford Press and Criminal Juries in the 21st Century: Psychological Science and the Law with Oxford University Press. Dr. Najdowski’s teaching and mentoring also has been recognized by the American Psychology-Law Society and at the University at Albany.
To learn more about Dr. Najdowski and her research, please visit the PULSE lab website.