Policy Evaluation and Sexual Violence Intern, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

An estimated 67.8 million US women and about 36.2 million men have experienced some form of contact sexual violence. The risk for burden sexual violence is not shared equally across all groups, populations experiencing elevated risk of sexual violence include but are not limited to racial/ethnic minority groups, sexual and gender minority groups, and people with disabilities. The biological, psychological, and social impacts of experiencing sexual violence are well documented, including adverse health outcomes, suicidality, and financial and housing insecurity. Given the prevalence of sexual violence combined with its economic, psychological, physical, and social consequences, sexual violence is a serious public health problem. Like all forms of violence, sexual violence is preventable. Policies are considered public health interventions at the outer layers of the socio-ecological model that are well situated for violence prevention. Although the evaluation of policies at the community and societal level, e.g., legislation, has gained traction, there is currently no comprehensive systematic synthesis of the effectiveness of policies for violence prevention, including sexual violence. 

This project will support CDC’s Injury Centers priorities on preventing injuries and violence, and adverse childhood experiences. The purpose of this proposal is to provide an Emory REAL student with the opportunity to support a project examining the state of the literature on state and federal level policy evaluations and sexual violence. The Emory REAL student, mentored by a scientist from the Research and Evaluation Branch (REB), will assist with the data extraction and synthesis stage of a systematic review. Alongside their mentor, the Emory REAL student will develop a plan for integrating CDC’s generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology in the systematic review process of data extraction and synthesis. The Emory REAL student may support activities such as: Assist in data extraction for articles that made it to full-text review; Assist in integrating the capabilities of artificial intelligence across multiple stages of the systematic review process; Assist in preparing and presenting results from this project to other CDC colleagues.

For more information and application instructions, visit the job posting on 12Twenty. Applications will be accepted through January 2nd, 2025.