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Husain Lateef

Husain Lateef centers culturally responsive research to inform social work practice, prevention, and interventions with youth populations of African descent. His scholarship incorporates the advancement of both theoretical inferences for working with Black youth and rigorous science to explore the relationship between Afrocentric constructs and transitional success of Black youth through adolescence (ages 13-17), and emerging adulthood (ages 18-29).  In 2023, Lateef officially launched the Afrocentric Youth Development Lab (AYDL), dedicated to expanding the knowledge base of Afrocentric youth research to inform Social Work practice with Black youth.

Lateef’s research also intersects with his practice experience working with serious juvenile offenders by advancing scholarship to inform reentry for this population post-conviction. Before joining the Brown School in 2019, he served as the social work supervisor for the Arizona Justice Project’s Reentry Team, one of Arizona’s first reentry programs assisting juveniles serving life-without-parole before the Supreme Court found many of those sentences unconstitutional.

Lateef is also a faculty affiliate with the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2), a faculty scholar in the Institute for Public Health, and a faculty affiliate with the Institute Clinical & Translational Sciences (ICTS). Courses taught by Lateef include Social Welfare Policy and Services and Criminal Justice-Involved Adults: Practice & Policy Interventions.

Husain Lateef

Areas of Focus:

  • Black Youth Development
  • African-Centered Theory, Research, and Practice
  • Juvenile Offender Reentry

Featured Publications

Lateef, H. (2023). Adherence to African-Centered Norms and Help Seeking for Emotional Distress Among Black Men.
Families in Society, 104(4), 570-582.

Lateef, H., Gale, A., Boyd, D., Arab, H., Amoako, E., & Williams, E. D. (2022). African-Centered Social Work in the 21st Century: A Content Analysis.
Social Work, 68(1), 28-37.

Lateef, H., Ashford, J. B., & Cornett, E. (2023). Sentenced Arizona Juvenile Lifers: A Case Study of the Intersectionality of Sentencing, Race, and Prison-Misconduct Profiles.
Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 1-9.

Ashford, J. B., & Lateef, H. (2023). Comparing Character Assumptions in Case Law Among Sentenced Juvenile Homicide Offenders: An Arizona Case Study
Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, 1(1), 85-104.