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Department of Psychology

Faculty

Alan Tomkins   
Office: Public Policy Ctr
(402) 472-5688
atomkins2@unl.edu

Alan Tomkins is the Director of the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, located off-campus at the Lincoln Community Foundation Building (215 Centennial Mall, South, Suite 401, Lincoln, NE 68588-0308). He was named director when the PPC was created in July, 1998. Dr. Tomkins is also a Professor in the UNL Law/Psychology Program.

Dr. Tomkins received a B. A. degree from Boston University (1975) with a joint major in Psychology and Philosophy. He earned a J. D. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. He joined the faculty of the Law/Psychology Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1986. Prior to coming to UNL, Dr. Tomkins was a Research Associate at the Federal Judicial Center, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Research Assistant Professor at St. Louis University. He also has served as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Southampton (England) and as a Visiting Scholar of Psychology at Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea). In 2005-06 Tomkins served as William J. Clinton Distinguished Fellow at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service while also continuing as director the Public Policy Center.

His policy research interests include mental health policy, community health and human services, the use of information for decision making, and stakeholder input into the policy process. Dr. Tomkins is co-editor Court Review, the journal of the American Judges Association. Previously, he served as co-Editor and then Editor of the interdisciplinary journal, Behavioral Sciences & the Law from 1989-2001, and served on the editorial board for Law & Human Behavior since 1991 and on Expert Evidence: The International Digest of Human Behaviour Science and Law from 1998-2001. He is a Fellow of the American-Psychology Law Society, Division 41 of the American Psychological Association.

 

Representative Publications

Artikov, I., Hoffman, S. J., Lynne, G.D., PytlikZillig, L. M., Hu, Q., Tomkins, A. J., Hubbard, K. G., Hayes, M. J., & Waltman, W. J. (2006). Understanding the influence of climate forecasts on farmer decisions as Planned Behavior. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 45, 1202-1214.

Bornstein, B.H., Tomkins, A.J., Michaels, S., Samal, A., Nam, Y., Zellmer, S. Hoagland, K., & Olson, D. (2009). Social justice and water sustainability and management. In A. Kakanowski & M. Narusevich (Eds.), Handbook of social justice. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Elbogen, E. B., Huss, M. T., Tomkins, A. J., & Scalora, M. J. (2005). Clinical decision-making about psychopathy and violence risk assessment in public sector mental health settings. Psychological Services, 2, 133-141.

Elbogen, E. B., Mercado, C. C., Scalora, M. J., & Tomkins, A. J. (2002). Perceived relevance of factors for violence risk assessment: A survey of clinicians. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 1, 37-47.

Elbogen, E. B., & Tomkins, A. J. (2000). Integrating conditional release and contingency management for individuals with chronic mental illness. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 18, 427-444.

Elbogen, E. B., Tomkins, A. J., Pothuloori, A., & Scalora, M. J. (2003). Documentation of violence risk factors in psychiatric facilities: An empirical examination. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 31, 58-64.

Grisso, T., & Tomkins, A. (1996). Communicating violence risk assessment. American Psychologist, 51, 928-930.

Hu, Q., Pytlik Zillig, L. M., Lynne, G. D, Tomkins, A. J., Waltman, W. J., Hayes, M. J., Hubbard, K. G., Artikov, I., Hoffman, S. J., & Wilhite, D. A. (2006). Understanding farmers' forecast use from their beliefs, values, social norms, and perceived obstacles. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 45, 1190-1201.

National Center for State Courts. (1999, May). How the public views the state courts: A 1999 national survey. Williamsburg, VA: Author. [contributing author]

Rottman, D., & Tomkins, A. J. (Eds.). (2001). Public trust and confidence in the courts [Special issue]. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 19(2), 197-320.

Tomkins, A. J. (1990). Dispositional decisionmaking in the juvenile justice system: An empirical study of the use of offense and offender information. Nebraska Law Review, 69, 298-345.

Tomkins, A.J. (Ed.). (2007-2008). Procedural justice [Special issue]. Court Review, 44(1/2), 1-84.
Available online at http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/courtrv/cr44-1/CR44-1-2.pdf.

Tomkins, A.J. (2008). Using research and engagement to inform policy making. The Community Psychologist, 41(3/4), 9-10.
Available online at http://www.scra27.org/resources/scrapublic/tcp/tcp2008/tcpfall200.

Tomkins, A.J., & Applequist, K. (2008). Constructs of justice: Beyond civil litigation. In B. H. Bornstein, R. L. Wiener, R. Schopp, & S. L. Willborn (Eds.), Civil juries and civil justice (pp. 163-178). New York: Springer.

Tomkins, A. J., Christensen, I., Fulwider, J., Loontjer, K., Abdel-Monem, T., & Cohn, D. (2006). Genetically Modified Foods: Attitudes and knowledge in the heart of the farm belt, USA. In C. Carter & W. Kenyon (Eds.), Proceedings of Participatory Approaches in Science & Technology Conference, June 4-7, 2006, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Available online from http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/PATHconference/outputs/PATH_abstract_6.1.1.pdf.

Tomkins, A., Shank, N., Tromanhauser, D., Rupp, S., & Mahoney, R. (2005). United Way and University partnerships in community-wide human services planning and plan implementation: The case of Lincoln/Lancaster County, Nebraska. Journal of Community Practice, 13(3), 55-72.