University of Salerno
Project Title: Behavior Analysis in Prison
Before joining the Chicago School’s doctoral program, Valeria earned a master’s degree in behavioural and applied cognitive psychology with focus on psychiatric disorders and neurobiology of impulsivity and earned a master’s degree in applied behaviour analysis, a master’s in clinical neuropsychology, and a master’s degree in law and neuroscience. She gained specific expertise in the field of treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders and ABA programs with children, adolescents, and adults. She currently serves as director of ABA for Disability Centro ABA e Neuroscience (ITA) and her work is focused on training staff who work with adults and to expand the use of ABA. Valeria is a first author of manuals and peer review article and has been a keynote speaker at international conferences. She conducts research projects with public organizations (e.g. universities, public health system) and private organizations in the field of applied behaviour analysis and neuroscience.
The intersection of Valeria’s expertise in law and behavioural sciences led to be connected with the department of Legal Science, University of Salerno, as a keynote speaker in a law clinical course. This experience focused Valeria on ways to solve problems faced by prisoners and staff within the legal system. Because the Italian legislation that focused heavily on rehabilitation over against punishment, Valeria knew there was an opportunity for behaviour analysis to help! Specifically, Valeria began formulating means to enhance prisoner quality of life without the use of aversives, but rather providing a sense of accomplishment and control to the prisoners and reducing dangerous behaviour for everyone.
Inspired by these ideas in 2023, Valeria bootstrapped an investigation into behavioural strategies to enhance the quality of life and safety of prisoners in Italy and currently has a manuscript detailing this study under review. The study was so successful that Valeria has been asked to expand the application to other prisons and thanks to the generosity of the SABA foundation, she will also now be able to extend her work to reach hundreds of prisoners, manualize the process, and set the stage for a country-wide adoption in Italy, potentially impacting the lives of thousands of prisoners and prison workers.
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