David Day

Biography

Dr. Day entered the applied social psychology graduate program (community psychology stream) at the University of Windsor in 1982, with a particular interest in community mental health and psychosocial rehabilitation. His doctoral work focused on psycho-epistemology as a predictor of attitude change. In 1989, he became Director of Research and Evaluation at Earlscourt Child and Family Centre (now the Child Development Institute) in Toronto. Earlscourt specialized in the treatment of children, ages 6 to 11 years, with conduct problem behaviours. His research focused on the factors that contribute to an early onset of antisocial behaviour, including those behaviours that would be criminally chargeable if the child was over age 12 years. This led to an interest in developmental criminology and work as a staff psychologist at a medium security prison for adult male offenders, prior to becoming a faculty member at Ryerson University in 1998. At Ryerson, he has continued to pursue his dual interests in developmental criminology and children’s mental health. He is the Director of the Psychology of Crime and Delinquency Lab. One of his major programs of research was a longitudinal investigation of developmental risk factors and criminal trajectories in a sample of 764 male offenders. This project also involved an investigation of the longitudinal costs of crime. A second study examined predictors of sexual risk and injury risk behaviours in juvenile offenders. A third study examined emotional and behavior self-regulation in a sample of children involved in intensive clinical services at various children’s mental health centres in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). He particularly enjoys research at the community-level and has been fortunate to be able to continue this work with various agencies and organizations. Dr. Day’s teaching activities at Ryerson parallel his research interests and have included Advanced Social Psychology Seminar, Advanced Clinical Psychology Seminar, Social Psychology, Developmental Psychopathology, Community Psychology, and Introductory Psychology.

Research Interest

children’s mental health; delinquency; criminal careers; physical restraints.