TK Logan, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine, and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Dr. Logan teaches in the Lewis Honors College and has joint appointments in Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, and Gender & Women’s Studies.
Dr. Logan’s research focuses on stalking/cyberstalking, partner abuse, coercive control, sexual assault, firearm-related risks, and safety planning and efficacy as well as on substance use disorder program (SUD) outcomes and SUD recovery. Dr. Logan is the principal investigator on 5 state funded SUD program evaluations. Dr. Logan’s uses surveys, focus groups, secondary data extraction, and mixed method qualitative interviews in her research. Dr. Logan is an author on over 200 research articles and book chapters as well as five books. She also serves on the editorial board of four international journals. Dr. Logan is involved with a several community boards and national organizations working to prevent gender-based violence.
Gender-Based Violence. A major area of research focus for Dr. Logan has been on studying victimization or silenced suffering because many women who experience sexual assault, partner abuse, and stalking will either not report their experiences or will be silenced when they do report. More recent work has focused on threats and the association of fear with negative outcomes and the factors that influence fear levels in partner abuse and stalking victims.
Firearms Risks. A recent area of research focus for Dr. Logan has been on firearms risks and violence including: (1) firearm threats and victimization among partner abuse victims, stalking victims, and individuals who use alcohol and/or illicit drugs; (2) firearm owner risks including gun handling and gun storage risks; and, (3) rural and urban key informant barriers and attitudes about implementing firearm-related protection policies.
Intervention Effectiveness. Another area of research focus for Dr. Logan examines the effectiveness of interventions to address partner abuse, stalking and sexual assault, HIV risk behavior, mental health, and substance abuse disorder program clients and outcomes as well as barriers to service use. These evaluations have also looked at the economic costs and cost-trade-offs of the studied interventions.
Personal Safety. Dr. Logan also has an interest in factors related to personal safety planning and fear reduction and the association of those factors with physical, mental health, and substance use. More research to better understand how individuals increase their safety efficacy to prevent a victimization or how this information can be used to help victims who are in need of help due to an ongoing threat like stalking or partner abuse is needed.
Health Disparities. Another area of research focus for Dr. Logan has been on examining health disparities in the context of victimization and negative health outcomes particularly in rural compared to urban settings. There are many barriers to service use as well as to getting help through the civil and criminal justice system. These service barriers, for all kinds of services, are especially notable among rural women compared to urban women. Rural women also have more physical and mental health problems and less access to services than urban women.