UIC professor named to NFL's violence panel

The director of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy has been named to the National Football League's newly formed panel addressing domestic violence.

Beth Richie teaches African-American studies, criminology, law and women's studies at the university. She is joining a panel of experts that includes a former New York attorney general and leaders of numerous anti-violence groups. The football league formed the panel after players were involved in domestic violence or child abuse incidents.

Officials say Richie studies the ways that race, ethnicity and social position affect women's experience of violence and incarceration, focusing on experiences of battered women and sexual assault survivors.

She says it's a "unique moment in our national consciousness" in considering the impact of violence against women.