Rebecca Bosetti

Rebecca Bosetti

Assistant Professor

Areas of Expertise

  • CJ 503: Perspectives on Youth in the Juvenile Justice System (developed and instructed)
  • CJ 580: Sexual Behavior and Societal Perspectives: The Good, the Bad, and the Controversy of Legality (developed and instructed)
  • SW 750: Applied Research Methods in Social Work
  • SW 650: Research Methods in Social Work
  • SW 422: Human Behavior and the Social Environment II

Highlighted Publications

Current Projects

  • Project: What's Your Pleasure? Investigating Adult Toy Store Employees as Positive Community-Based Sex Educators
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Funder: The Spencer Foundation
    Funding Mechanism: Small Grants Program
    Funds Awarded: $49,971
  • Project: Juvenile Treatment Court Evaluation: Restoration in the Community
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Funder: University of Kentucky UNITE
    Funding Mechanism: Small Scale Funding
    Funds Awarded: $1,500

Student & Research Availability

  • Accepting Students in Programs: Bachelors | Doctoral | Masters
  • Available Student Positions: Honors Thesis | Independent Study | Practicum
  • Research or Interest Area Key Words: juvenile delinquency; childhood sexual abuse; sexual violence prevention; sex-positive education; sex offender management policy; adolescent development; measurement validation

Alma Mater

The Ohio State University, 2020

Get to Know Rebecca

Rebecca L. Bosetti, PhD, MSW is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Kentucky. Bosetti completed her BS in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015, her MSW at The Ohio State University in 2017, and her PhD in Social Work at The Ohio State University in 2020 after defending her dissertation entitled Maltreatment, Emotional Responses to Abuse, and Trauma Among Adolescents Engaging in Sexual or Non-Sexual Delinquency, which was funded by the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA) Pre-doctoral Research Grant and received the Merriss Cornell Distinguished Researcher Award. Dr. Bosetti’s research explores developmental antecedents to juvenile delinquency behaviors, the role of childhood maltreatment victimization and trauma in the etiology of adolescent offending, and emotional processing risk factors that differentiate youth who commit general delinquent offenses from youth who engage in sexually abusive behaviors. Moreover, her recent scholarship highlights the role of accessible, positive sex education as a tool for the primary prevention of sexual violence. Her study What’s Your Pleasure? Investigating Adult Toy Store Employees as Positive Community-Based Sex Educators received funding from the Spencer Foundation Small Research Grants on Education program, a highly competitive national funding mechanism. In 2024, Dr. Bosetti received the College of Social Work’s People First, People Always Culture of Research Award, a peer nominated honor awarded to a faculty member in recognition of outstanding research contributions that strengthen the culture of research in the college. Dr. Bosetti serves on the editorial board of Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, has served on the Research Leadership Strategic Planning Group for the international organization ATSA, and will continue researching the safety and victimization experiences of juvenile justice involved youth in the hopes of informing the implementation of developmentally responsive juvenile justice practices and effective educational resources for the primary prevention of sexual violence.