John Jay College to Launch Academy for Critical Incident Analysis With $175,000 Grant From Dart Foundation

Press Release

NEW YORK, April 29 (AScribe Newswire) — John Jay College of Criminal Justice today announced a $175,000 grant from the Dart Foundation to launch the Academy for Critical Incident Analysis (ACIA). The mission of the Academy is to promote and disseminate scholarly research relating to the emergence, management and consequences of critical incidents. ACIA will sponsor research, host conferences and symposiums as well as develop indexed archives of incident records.

According to President Jeremy Travis, “The Academy will advance the College’s and the Dart Foundation’s mutual interests in the prevention and mitigation of trauma, conflict and tragedy and the enhancement of systems for disaster and emergency relief.”

“The Dart Foundation supports centers of excellence, applying skilled scientific study to complex societal problems. We are confident that John Jay College is such a center of excellence, and will, with the leadership of President Jeremy Travis, define and advance the emerging interdisciplinary field of critical incident analysis,” said James D. Lammers, Vice President of the Dart Foundation

A Critical Incident is a relatively brief occurrence involving injury, loss, conflict, discovery or change of significant proportion, usually unscripted and unanticipated, with the potential to alter existing societal norms. Critical incidents are usually traumatic, threatening the bonds of trust that bind communities, and they can have long-term consequences. Examples include school shootings, notorious terrorist incidents, or unanticipated disasters.

“The point of the research is to understand how some of these relatively brief but traumatic events generate consequences far beyond the time and place of the event,” explained Professor Ned Benton, the Interim Executive Director of ACIA.