Dr. Maxine Davis

Chancellors Scholar 

Rutgers University

Dr. Maxine Davis serves as an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. She studies people who act abusively within romantic intimate relationships and interventions that are designed to help them change. Dr. Davis completed her PhD in Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. With specific attention on Black-American and Latinx/Latine (pronounced: Lat-een-X/La-teen-aye) populations, her research is guided by former work in Partner Abuse Intervention Programs mostly attended by men who were arrested and convicted of domestic violence. Her most recent work explores how to reach people who have acted abusively and help them change their behavior outside of the criminal justice (carceral) system. As an investigator who also examines the intersection of religious-faith and intimate partner violence (IPV), a related track of her research examines how religion (within a Christian context) is misused to perpetrate IPV. Most of her research uses a community-engaged approach, centering the voices of historically excluded racial groups as equal partners. She has presented her research at several prestigious national conferences throughout the United States and has recently been invited to share her work internationally with local non-governmental organizations. Her independent and collaborative work on the experiences of marginalized populations has been published in several academic journals, including the Journal of Black Sexuality & Relationships; Trauma, Violence, & Abuse; and the American Journal of Men's Health. Her research has been supported by several research centers and most recently funded by The Louisville Institute and the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. The driving force behind her passion is fueled by a spirit of hope that with proper support and resources, people who have acted abusively can become committed to peaceful living.

Faculty profile: https://socialwork.rutgers.edu/faculty-staff/maxine-davis

Research Lab website: https://socialwork.rutgers.edu/centers/center-violence-against-women-and-children/reaching-99

Recent Research Interview: https://socialwork.rutgers.edu/news-events/news/iidea-research-spotlight-assistant-professor-maxine-davis