Linda M. Williams
Senior Research Scientist
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
- linda.williams@wellesley[dot]edu
- CV
Co-founder of Justice and Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative; Focuses on sexual exploitation of women and children, sexual violence, human trafficking, child abuse
Linda M. Williams, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist and director of the Justice and Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative at the Wellesley Centers for Women. For more than 40 years, Williams has directed research on violence against women, sexual exploitation of children, sex offenders, and the consequences of child abuse, including several longitudinal studies and recent qualitative work. The focus of her current work is on justice system response to sexual violence, commercial sexual exploitation of women and children, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, and child maltreatment. Her work strives to ensure that the voices of women and children are heard. Williams served as professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell from 2005-2015, and now serves as Professor Emerita there.
Williams is currently collaborating with the Philadelphia Women’s Law Project and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to audit the Austin Police Department’s handling of sexual assault cases.
She recently completed a study funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) on how U.S. colleges and universities respond to sexual assault on campus. Along with colleagues Alison Cares, Nan Stein, and April Pattavina, she gathered data from a national sample of 969 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S., identifying a wide variety of individual approaches and programs.
Williams also recently completed a study funded by the NIJ on sexual violence case attrition—why and when sexual assault cases “fall out” of the criminal justice system. Williams and colleagues April Pattavina and Melissa Morabito found that for every 100 sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults reported to police, only one ended in a guilty verdict through trial. They investigated why so few cases led to arrest or trial and identified common characteristics of cases that moved forward through the criminal justice system. The researchers also conducted a supplemental study examining the impact of sexual assault forensic testing (rape kits) on key decision points and outcomes.
In addition, Williams recently worked with colleague Stephanie Block on a project funded by the NIJ on the criminal prosecution of child sexual abuse cases, including the characteristics of cases that go forward to prosecution and the factors associated with case attrition. They found that less than 10 percent of the cases resulted in a conviction or guilty plea.
Williams has been the principal investigator on 18 U.S. federally funded research projects and has directed research funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, and private foundations.
