Expertise
Police-mental health co-response, youth crisis intervention and quantitative and qualitative research methods.Research Interests
Police-behavioral health co-response to crises, with a focus on youth and emerging adults in urban settings. Work explores crisis intervention, multi-agency coordination between police and clinicians and how crisis severity shapes response outcomes. Uses mixed methods, combining quantitative analysis of administrative data with qualitative coding.Education
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) candidate in Criminology and Justice Studies - University of Massachusetts Lowell (expected Spring 2027)
- Master of Arts (M.A.) in Criminal Justice - Saint Anselm College, 2022
Biosketch
A doctoral candidate in Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Research focuses on police-behavioral health co-response to crises, crisis intervention and multi-agency coordination in urban settings. Dissertation examines co-response to behavioral health crises among youth and emerging adults in Boston, drawing on administrative data from the Boston Police Department and the Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) partnership. Work experience includes a research assistantship on a grant-funded co-response project and work has been published in Policing. Earned an M.A. from Saint Anselm College.Selected Publications
- Morabito, M. S., Fisher, C. E., Savage, J., & Oblath, R. (2026). Identifying individuals with frequent co-response contact and measuring activities of police officers on co-response teams: Connecting data from the Boston emergency services team & the Boston police department. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 20.
- Morabito, M. S., Savage, J., Messina, P., Harlow, D., & Fisher, C. E. (2024). Police reform and involuntary hospitalization. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 18.
Selected Presentations
- Courtney E. Fisher, 2026 “Co-Response to Behavioral Health Crises among Youth and Emerging Adults in Boston: An Exploratory Study of Incident Characteristics and Outcomes”
To be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in November 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. - Courtney E. Fisher, Jenna Savage, Melissa S. Morabito, and Rachel Oblath, 2025
“Identifying and Measuring the Activities of Police Officers on Co-Response Teams: Connecting Data from the Boston Emergency Services Team & the Boston Police Department”
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in November 2025 in Washington, D.C. - Courtney E. Fisher, Melissa S. Morabito, Rachel Oblath and Jenna Savage, 2025
“Identifying Points of Intervention: A Collaboration between Boston Emergency Services Team & the Boston Police Department”
Presented at the Annual Boston Area Research Initiative’s Insight-to-Impact Summit in April 2025 at Roxbury Community College in Boston, Massachusetts. - Courtney E. Fisher, Kaitlyn Clarke and Philip McCormack, 2022
“An Analysis of Alcohol Availability and Neighborhood-Level Violence”
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in March of 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.