Director
joining the faculty at John Jay she completed a pre-doctoral clinical internship at Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School. She currently serves on the New York State Unified Court System's Permanent Commission on Justice for Families.
Dr. Haney-Caron is a licensed psychologist in New York and a licensed attorney in Pennsylvania. She maintains a small forensic assessment practice, focused primarily on Miranda waivers and on assessing youth developmental immaturity.
Emily Haney-Caron is an Associate Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dr. Haney-Caron's research, scholarship, policy work, and teaching are all focused on the juvenile legal system, with a primary goal of contributing to system reform to increase racial justice and improve the system’s developmental appropriateness. She has published research or scholarship on racism and colorism in the juvenile legal system, youth Miranda comprehension, false confession, fines and fees in the juvenile legal system, the school-to-prison pipeline, developmental immaturity, psychopathology among legally involved youth, and applications of the Risk-Needs-Responsivity model to juvenile justice. Dr. Haney-Caron's scholarship has been profiled by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and MSNBC, and has been cited in U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs and a U.S. Department of Justice Advisory.
Dr. Haney-Caron teaches doctoral courses on forensic assessment, the law of forensic psychology, juvenile justice, and psychopathology, as well as Master's and undergraduate classes at the intersection of psychology and law. Before
LILI RAMOS
Doctoral Candidate
Lili Ramos is a seventh-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She graduated from Bowdoin College in 2018, with a major in Psychology and a minor in Hispanic Studies. Before starting at John Jay, Lili spent two years as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health Lab at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At John Jay, Lili works on several projects that aim to inform juvenile legal system policies and practice reforms, including studies examining factors that contribute to adolescents’ experiences on probation and judges’ perceptions of youth plea bargain processes. Lili was selected for the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which supports her work applying an ecological approach to better understand youth success on probation.
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
STEPHANY BETANCES
Doctoral Student
Stephany Betances is a fourth-year student in the clinical psychology doctoral program at CUNY Graduate Center and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is an alumna of John Jay’s Forensic Psychology MA program and earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. During her second year in the master’s program, she began her advocacy work for justice-involved youth through a placement with Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) as part of the Pinkerton Graduate Fellowship. After graduating, she returned to BDS as a mitigation specialist and later as a supervisor with the Adolescent Representation Team.
Stephany’s clinical and research interests focus on justice-involved youth, alternative-to-incarceration programs, out-of-home placements, and forensic assessments. Central to this work is understanding developmentally appropriate interventions for youth, while attending to the intersecting identities that shape youths’ experiences. She is committed to informing stakeholders and community leaders about effective, developmentally appropriate approaches for justice-involved youth and to advocating for policy changes that strengthen their legal rights.
Stephany is a past recipient of the Samuel H. Solomon Memorial Scholarship and a 2026 Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Summer Research Fellowship awardee. She is also fluent in Spanish.
TIRZA BEN-ARI
Doctoral Student
Tirza Ben-Ari is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Psychology & Law program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She came to the program straight from her post-MA OPT as a case analyst/trial preparation assistant at the Queens District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, where she analyzed claims of wrongful conviction. Her current research focuses on false confessions and police interrogation techniques and psychological misconceptions within the justice system. She was the 2023-24 recipient of DOAR’s Samuel H. Solomon Memorial Scholarship for psychology and law, and she serves as an affiliate at OSAC’s (NIST) Human Factors Task Group.
CARA BURDITT
Doctoral Student
Cara Burditt is a second-year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology PhD program at John Jay College. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with degrees in Psychology and Anthropology. After graduation, she served as Lab Director and Forensic Interviewer at the USC Child Interviewing Lab, where she conducted and observed interviews with children alleging sexual abuse for the Los Angeles Juvenile Dependency Court and conducted research exploring children’s comprehension of legal questions and their impact on child maltreatment cases. She created a peer-review tool for forensic interviews, now used in California’s statewide peer review training for children’s advocacy centers.
At John Jay, Cara’s work focuses on supporting systems-involved youth and improving their interactions with legal professionals. Through her research, Cara aims to create tools and strategies that help legal professionals better understand and support children, ultimately fostering safer and more successful outcomes for youth navigating complex legal processes.
MASTER'S STUDENTS
GABRIELLE BIERSACH
Master's Student
Gabrielle Biersach is a first-year Master’s student in the Forensic Psychology program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She graduated from the University of Southern California in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Forensics & Criminality. Before starting at John Jay, Gabrielle spent three years as a Forensic Interviewer and Lab Director at the USC Child Interviewing Lab in the Gould School of Law. Gabrielle’s research interests include exploring children’s understanding of youth interrogation techniques, as well as how dependency-involved youth navigate the juvenile justice system. She is incredibly passionate about advocating for justice-involved youth and is dedicated to contributing to research that informs policy reform.
BENJAMIN JOHNSON
Master's Student
Benjamin Johnson is a second-year Master’s student in the Forensic Psychology program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He received a Bachelor of Science from the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University, where he majored in Psychology and minored in Justice Studies. He completed an undergraduate honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Janelle Kappes, studying the effects of parental expectations on academic achievement and higher education pathways. In the Youth Law and Psychology Lab at John Jay, Benjamin is involved in a project analyzing youth understanding of Miranda waivers and the considerations of judges when deciding the admissibility of self-incriminating statements from youth suspects. Benjamin’s research interests include jury decision making and false confession, especially in cases involving youth suspects.
JOCELYN WEISS
Master's Student
Jocelyn Weiss is a third-year M.A. student in Forensic Mental Health Counseling at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She earned her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Criminal Justice and Theatre & Drama. During her first year at John Jay, she joined Dr. Saul Kassin’s Police Interrogation & False Confession Social Psychology Research Lab, where she continues to assist with research examining perceptions of suspects’ Miranda comprehension. With experience and a strong clinical interest in youth and young adult mental health care, Jocelyn is particularly passionate about researching developmental factors that impact issues within the juvenile justice system. She is thrilled to be part of the Youth Law and Psychology Lab at John Jay, where she is assisting on a project analyzing factors judges consider in determining the validity of youth Miranda waivers. Jocelyn is also a clinical extern at Jamron Counseling in Brooklyn, where she provides individual counseling primarily with adolescent and young adult clients.
UNDERGRADUATES
LYNNE KIM
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lynne Kim is a senior at Columbia University majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Philosophy. She is also a Research Assistant in the Social and Moral Cognition Lab at Columbia University, where she studies moral development and social cognition across childhood and adulthood. Her research interests lie at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and law, with a particular focus on legal decision making, perceptions of punishment, and the psychological factors that shape judgments of responsibility and fairness. She is excited to contribute to the Youth Law and Psychology Lab at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she is assisting with research examining the factors judges consider when evaluating the validity of youth Miranda waivers.
LAB ALUMNI
FORMER DOCTORAL STUDENTS
Sydney Baker, Assistant Professor at Pace University
Johanna Hellgren, Assistant Professor at University of New Haven
FORMER MASTER'S STUDENTS
Niamh Healy, doctoral student, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY Graduate Center
Amanda Scarlata, Research Coordinator, DOAR Trial Consulting
Kaillee Philleo, Assistant Director of Experiential Education, Columbia University Center for Career Education
Aliya Birnbaum, doctoral student, Montclair State University
Charise Peters, research staff, YETI Lab, University of Pittsburgh
Denieka Ellis, doctoral student, NOVA Southeastern University
Erika Diaz Ortiz, Systems and Admin Coordinator, Queens Counseling for Change
Treasure Tabor, Mental Health Counselor, Footprints Mental Health Counseling
Makieda McKenzie, master's student, Teacher's College, Columbia University
Sydney Tulloch
Tajae Ali
FORMER UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Kamar Tazi, postdoctoral fellow, Patton State Hospital
Ashli Hamilton, doctoral student, Arizona State University
Alijah Sepulveda
Aliza Klingenstein
FORMER LEGAL RESEARCH AND POLICY INTERNS
Jessica Middleton
Diana Damewood