Evan Marie Lowder

Evan Marie Lowder

Evan Marie Lowder

Assistant Professor

Justice-involved behavioral health populations, mental health courts and diversion programs, risk assessment, racial disparities, opioid crisis, quantitative research methods

Dr. Evan M. Lowder is an Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University and directs the Early Justice Strategies lab. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from North Carolina State University. Her research is focused on strategies to reduce offending and improve behavioral health outcomes among justice-involved adults. Specific emphases include adults with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders, pre-booking and court-based diversion programs, opioid use, and risk and needs assessment. More recently, her work has focused on evaluating the success of pretrial reform efforts, including pretrial risk assessment and pretrial supervision. Dr. Lowder has received funding from local (Fairfax County), state (Indiana Office of Court Services; Indiana Family and Social Services Administration), and federal agencies (National Institute of Justice) to evaluate early intervention strategies that connect justice-involved individuals to community-based treatment, facilitate release from pretrial detention, and improve community outcomes. Her research has been published in outlets such as Justice Quarterly, the Journal of Criminal Justice, Law and Human Behavior, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and the American Journal of Public Health. Currently, Dr. Lowder is a co-investigator on a MacArthur Foundation grant to study pretrial defendants' risks and needs during the pretrial period. Her work has been recognized by the American Public Health Association and the American Psychology-Law Society. She was the 2019 recipient of the Christopher Webster Early Career Award from the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services. In 2023, she received a Faculty Excellence in Research award from George Mason University President Gregory Washington. 

Selected Publications

Lowder, E. M. Foudray, C. M. A., & McPherson, M. (2022).  Proxy assessments and early pretrial release: Effects on criminal case and recidivism outcomes. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000341  

Lowder, E. M., Diaz, C. L, Grommon, E., & Ray, B. R. (2022). Differential prediction and disparate impact of pretrial risk assessments in practice: A multi-site evaluation. Journal of Experimental Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-021-09492-9 

Lowder, E. M., & Foudray, C. M. A. (2021). Use of risk assessments in pretrial supervision decision-making and associated outcomes: Crime & Delinquency. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287211022642  

Lowder, E. M., Diaz, C. L., Grommon, E., & Ray, B. R. (2020). Effects of pretrial risk assessments on release decisions and misconduct outcomes relative to practice as usual. Journal of Criminal Justice, 101754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101754

Lowder, E. M., Lawson, S. G., Grommon, E., & Ray, B. R. (2020). Five-county validation of the Indiana Risk Assessment System – Pretrial Assessment Tool (IRAS-PAT) using a local validation approach. Justice Quarterly, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2020.1829006

Lowder, E. M., Lawson, S. G., O’Donnell, D., Sightes, E., & Ray, B. R. (2020). Two‐year outcomes following naloxone administration by police officers or emergency medical services personnel. Criminology & Public Policy, 1745-9133.12509. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12509

Lowder, E. M., Amlung, J., & Ray, B. R. (2020). Individual and county-level variation in outcomes following non-fatal opioid-involved overdose. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2019-212915 

Lowder, E. M., Ray, B. R., & Gruenewald, J. A. (2019). Criminal justice professionals’ attitudes toward mental illness and substance use. Community Mental Health Journal. 10.1007/s10597-019-00370-3

Courses Taught

CRIM 315: Research Methods and Analysis in Criminology

CRIM 408: Criminal Courts

CRIM 491-492: Honors Seminar I and II

CRIM 795: Applied Methods and Statistics in Secondary Data Analysis

 

Education

B.A., Psychology and Political Science, College of Saint Benedict
Ph.D., Psychology, North Carolina State University

Dissertations Supervised

Chelsea Foudray, Problematic Substance Use and the Pretrial Period: Risk- and Needs-based Supervision Strategies (2023)