Ph.D. Applicant · Developmental Psychopathology · Justice-Involved Youth

Jiyoung (Serendy) You

Antisocial Behavior Caregiver–Adolescent Relationships Decision-Making Institutional Responses

My research examines how adolescents’ relationships with caregivers and the ways institutions respond to their behavior relate to the development of antisocial behavior. I am particularly interested in how adolescents interpret these experiences and evaluate the responses they receive.

This interest grew out of nearly three years of conducting psychological assessments with 115 justice-involved adolescents in police diversion programs in Seoul. Because each assessment captured a single point in time, I could not tell how their behavior would change afterward, or how their interpretations would relate to those changes.

My long-term goal is to build evidence that helps prevent circumstances adolescents did not choose from becoming lasting disadvantages.

Explore My Research Curriculum Vitae

What I Do

Research & Professional Experience

Applied Psychological Assessment

Psychological Assessment of Justice-Involved Youth

Police Diversion Program (2024-2026) — Conducted semi-structured interviews and psychological assessments with 115 justice-involved adolescents across three police stations in Seoul. Evaluated developmental, family, and offense-related factors, integrating findings into formal reports that informed Family Court and prosecutorial decisions.

Experimental Research

Socioeconomic & Appearance-Based Bias in Legal Decision-Making

Master's Thesis (2025) — Designed and conducted an online 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment examining how defendants' socioeconomic status, appearance, and offense type influence mock jurors' sentencing judgments. Analyzed data from 251 participants, examining main effects and interactions among experimental factors.

Youth Antisocial Behavior

Cross-National Study of Youth Gangs

Understanding Youth Gangs in Modern Society (2026-Present) — Collaborating on a funded cross-national mixed-methods study involving more than 10 countries. The project examines young people's perceptions of gangs and gang-related victimization. Contributing to the development of the Korean component, with data collection planned for 2027.
(PIs: Dr. Shannon Reid & Dr. Sungil Han, UNC Charlotte)

Measurement & Validation

Risk-Assessment Instrument Development

Stalking Risk-Assessment Framework (2023) — Contributed to the development and validation of two stalking recidivism risk-assessment instruments (SRAT-I and SRAT-P) commissioned by Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency. Coded 288 case files from 18 police agencies, supported reliability and validity analyses (AUC = .707; ICC = .855 across five raters), and co-developed scoring manuals.
Implicit and Explicit Evaluations of Rape (2023) — Coordinated an Implicit Association Test (IAT) study examining evaluations of rape, contributing to data analysis and manuscript development.

Forensic Practice

Forensic Psychological Evaluations

Adolescent Victim Statement Analysis (2024) — Contributed to a court-submitted expert opinion applying Statement Validity Analysis (SVA/CBCA) to examine how developmental vulnerabilities, including borderline intellectual functioning, suggestibility, and disrupted attachment, were relevant to an adolescent victim's vulnerability to exploitation and the evaluation of her testimony.
Additional Forensic Evaluations (2023-2024) — Contributed to testimonial-validity assessments involving an intellectually disabled victim and coercive-control dynamics in a homicide case, as well as a psychological autopsy examining relational and environmental circumstances.

Computational Methods

Text Mining & NLP Research

Computational Analysis of Gaslighting Discourse (2023) — Led a Python-based text-mining study of more than 5,000 social media posts examining public discourse surrounding gaslighting.
*Best Poster Award at the Korean Criminological Association
NLP Corpus for Investigative Interviews (2022) — Developed a CBCA-annotated corpus of more than 3,000 investigative interview statements to support AI-assisted statement analysis.

Additional Applied Research Experience

Public Policy & Applied Research

Research Institutes & Government-Commissioned Projects | 2024–2026

Contributed to a national policy report on illegal gambling response and governance commissioned by the Presidential Commission on National Unity, and conducted statistical analyses for Korea's annual Gender Impact Assessment report at the Korean Women's Development Institute.

At the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, supported a national Delphi survey on human trafficking and exploitation, reviewed literature on the predictive validity of risk-assessment instruments, and pilot-tested CBCA-based coding for an AI-assisted statement-analysis project.

Methods & Skills

Measurement & Validation

Instrument development, predictive validity, systematic case-file coding

Technical Skills

Python (text mining, NLP), SPSS, R, jamovi, PsychoPy

Psychological Methods

Structured risk assessment, statement validity analysis (SVA/CBCA), NICHD protocol interviewing, PAI-A administration

Scholarly Output

Publications & Presentations

1
Park, J., You, J., Choi, Y., & Jo, E. (2024). The Relationship Between Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Rape: Using the Rape Evaluation Implicit Association Test. Korean Journal of Forensic Psychology, 15(2), 135–155.
PublishedView Paper ↗
2
You, J., & Jo, E. (in prep). Bias on Trial: The Influence of Socioeconomic and Physical Cues on Juror Decisions.
Under Review / In Preparation
3
You, J., & Jo, E. (2024). Exploring Juror Bias Toward Defendant SES and Appearance. East Asian Association of Psychology and Law, Osaka, Japan.
Poster PresentationView Poster ↗
4
You, J., & Jo, E. (2024). Mock Juror Judgments of Defendant SES and Appearance: A Pilot Study. Korean Association of Psychology and Law & KICJ, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Poster Presentation
5
You, J., & Jo, E. (2023). Analyzing the Popular Discourse of Gaslighting Using Text Mining: A Case Study of Instagram Posts. Korean Criminological Association, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Poster Presentation
6
Kang, D., Kwon, S., Kim, S., Park, S., Park, J., You, J., Lee, H., Jeong, Y., Choi, G. (2018). The Effect of Self-Discrepancy on Self-Disclosure of Instagram Users. Unity of Mind Analyst Joint Academic Symposium, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Poster Presentation
7
Hong, S., Cho, J., Jeong, S., You, J., & Park, J. (2024). Policy Strategies for Illegal Gambling Response and Governance. Presidential Commission on National Unity.
Technical Report
8
Jo, E., Jeong, S., Kim, S., You, J., Yoon, Y., Lee, H., Jeong, H., Han, Y., & Park, S. (2023). Development of the Expert-based Stalking Recidivism Assessment Tool: Final Report. Institute for Industry-Academia Cooperation, Dongguk University. Commissioned by Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency.
Technical Report

1
Park, J., You, J., Choi, Y., & Jo, E. (2024). The Relationship Between Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Rape: Using the Rape Evaluation Implicit Association Test. Korean Journal of Forensic Psychology, 15(2), 135–155.
PublishedView Paper ↗
2
You, J., & Jo, E. (in prep). Bias on Trial: The Influence of Socioeconomic and Physical Cues on Juror Decisions.
Under Review / In Preparation

1
You, J., & Jo, E. (2024). Exploring Juror Bias Toward Defendant SES and Appearance. East Asian Association of Psychology and Law, Osaka, Japan.
Poster PresentationView Poster ↗
2
You, J., & Jo, E. (2024). Mock Juror Judgments of Defendant SES and Appearance: A Pilot Study. Korean Association of Psychology and Law & KICJ, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Poster Presentation
3
You, J., & Jo, E. (2023). Analyzing the Popular Discourse of Gaslighting Using Text Mining: A Case Study of Instagram Posts. Korean Criminological Association, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Poster Presentation
4
Kang, D., Kwon, S., Kim, S., Park, S., Park, J., You, J., Lee, H., Jeong, Y., Choi, G. (2018). The Effect of Self-Discrepancy on Self-Disclosure of Instagram Users. Unity of Mind Analyst Joint Academic Symposium, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Poster Presentation

1
Hong, S., Cho, J., Jeong, S., You, J., & Park, J. (2024). Policy Strategies for Illegal Gambling Response and Governance. Presidential Commission on National Unity.
Technical Report
2
Jo, E., Jeong, S., Kim, S., You, J., Yoon, Y., Lee, H., Jeong, H., Han, Y., & Park, S. (2023). Development of the Expert-based Stalking Recidivism Assessment Tool: Final Report. Institute for Industry-Academia Cooperation, Dongguk University. Commissioned by Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency.
Technical Report