Research
Curriculum Vitae
My research is varied. I am interested in everything from why people behave the way they do, to social disparities in criminal justice involvement.
Desistance
My most recent focus is on what is called "desistance" from crime. This refers to the slowing down and eventual stopping of criminal involvement by those who have offended. It's an interesting notion--even the most hardened criminals tend to desist. The question is, why?
My dissertation focused on understanding desistance as a consequence of "maturation." We hear that term a lot in lay society. But no one can really put their finger on what it means. Interestingly, a pair of Harvard researchers in the 1930s had suggested that "maturational reform" was the cause of desistance. But they left it up to future researchers to specify what maturation meant. So, using current theories of desistance, I argue that we can identify five domains of maturation, and that may help us understand desistance. This theoretical perspective has recently been published in Criminology and Criminal Justice, under the title "The lost concept: The (re)emerging link between maturation and desistance from crime."
Another recent study, conducted with Chad Posick and Ray Paternoster, looked at the theory that changes in identity can account for decreases in criminal conduct over time. Using data from the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project, we found that increases in prosocial identity correlated with decreased crime. The study was published in Justice Quarterly ("Identities through time: An exploration of identity change as a cause of desistance"). The title is a wink to Block's (1971) seminal "Lives through time."
Finally, Chad Posick and Helene R. White recently tested the maturation idea, which was published in the new Division of Life-Course and Developmental Criminology Journal, the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology.
All of this work is being developed into a book tentatively titled "Desistance from Crime: Research, Theory, and Prospects" to be published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2017.
Race and Justice
Another research interest of mine is the examination of race within the context of crime and justice. My first journal article was an application of Robert Agnew's "General Strain Theory" to slavery in the Antebellum South. This was published in a special issue of Crime, Law, and Social Change, as a project honoring Black History Month ("Strain, coping mechanisms, and slavery: a general strain theory application").
In the inaugural volume of the journal Race and Justice I published a piece exploring how legitimacy toward and bias on the part of the criminal justice system leads to a perpetuating cycle of disproportionate involvement in crime and punishment. This was published as "Racial disparities in the criminal justice system and perceptions of legitimacy: A theoretical linkage."
Another paper related to race and legitimacy of the criminal justice system looked at whether the lower opinion of the police on the part of African-Americans is a result of testing bias (differential item functioning). Chad Posick and I found that testing bias cannot account for the lower ratings of the police by minorities. This paper was also published in Race and Justice as "One scale fits all? Assessing racial differences in the measurement of attitudes toward the police."
Most recently, along with Ray Paternoster and Jacqueline Ghislaine Lee, a re-analysis of Georgia capital cases for an anthology honoring the work of the recently deceased David Baldus found that there is still racial bias in the handing down of capital sentences. This study can be found in the recently published Race in America and the future of the death penalty, edited by R. J. Maratea and David Keys.
Theory and Theory Testing
I am also fascinated with criminological (sociological and biosocial) theories. My master's thesis explored the ways in which different correctional contexts may affect social bonds (relationships) among prisoners. A follow-up looked to see whether changes during incarceration of those bonds had an effect on post-release behavior (called recidivism). Those papers were published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (paper) and Victims and Offenders (paper), respectively.
Other papers have looked at theories and policy practices surrounding school shootings, published in the Social Science Journal (paper), and how biosocial criminology may help inform crime prevention practices in an ethical way. The latter was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice (paper).
Biosocial criminology is an area that I am increasingly becoming interested in. The crime prevention piece in the Journal of Criminal Justice was my first foray into the topic. Since then, I have been fortunate enough to contribute chapters in Experimental Neurocriminology, and policy implications of biosocial research along with Adrian Raine and Brandon Welsh. Most recently, Chad Posick and Shanna Felix helped me develop a theory of how subcultures of violence emerge and are supported in inner-cities. For this paper, we drew upon the recent research on toxic stress and the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis.
A recent project, using data from the International Self-Report of Delinquency (ISRD), led by my advisor, Ineke Marshall, sought to explore criminal careers (of youth) across nations. This was published in the European Journal of Criminology in a special issue on comparative criminology.
Other Projects
I'm currently working on a number of other projects, including the 2nd edition of Nicole Rafter's great book, The criminal brain. This book explores the history of criminology, tracing its origins to psychiatry. The book also discusses prominent biological theories of crime, offering a sociological perspective on what has generally been a taboo subject. Our update (The criminal brain, 2nd ed) , which is available starting in August of 2016 covers more recent biosocial work.
Stemming from my work at the Maine Department of Corrections, a study that we conducted to determine whether staff were consistent with their risk assessments has recently been published at the Journal of Criminal Justice. The paper involved videotaping interviews and having random selected staff fill out the assessments based on the interviews.
Other correctional work includes a couple of projects with the fantastic Director of research at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Grant Duwe. First, we examined whether the Level of Service Inventory-Revised, a popular risk assessment tool used by corrections departments, predicts need as well as risk. That paper was published in the first volume of a new corrections journal (here). Our second project examined whether reliability of risk assessment impacts validity. That study is forthcoming in Criminology and Public Policy (February).
Desistance
My most recent focus is on what is called "desistance" from crime. This refers to the slowing down and eventual stopping of criminal involvement by those who have offended. It's an interesting notion--even the most hardened criminals tend to desist. The question is, why?
My dissertation focused on understanding desistance as a consequence of "maturation." We hear that term a lot in lay society. But no one can really put their finger on what it means. Interestingly, a pair of Harvard researchers in the 1930s had suggested that "maturational reform" was the cause of desistance. But they left it up to future researchers to specify what maturation meant. So, using current theories of desistance, I argue that we can identify five domains of maturation, and that may help us understand desistance. This theoretical perspective has recently been published in Criminology and Criminal Justice, under the title "The lost concept: The (re)emerging link between maturation and desistance from crime."
Another recent study, conducted with Chad Posick and Ray Paternoster, looked at the theory that changes in identity can account for decreases in criminal conduct over time. Using data from the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project, we found that increases in prosocial identity correlated with decreased crime. The study was published in Justice Quarterly ("Identities through time: An exploration of identity change as a cause of desistance"). The title is a wink to Block's (1971) seminal "Lives through time."
Finally, Chad Posick and Helene R. White recently tested the maturation idea, which was published in the new Division of Life-Course and Developmental Criminology Journal, the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology.
All of this work is being developed into a book tentatively titled "Desistance from Crime: Research, Theory, and Prospects" to be published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2017.
Race and Justice
Another research interest of mine is the examination of race within the context of crime and justice. My first journal article was an application of Robert Agnew's "General Strain Theory" to slavery in the Antebellum South. This was published in a special issue of Crime, Law, and Social Change, as a project honoring Black History Month ("Strain, coping mechanisms, and slavery: a general strain theory application").
In the inaugural volume of the journal Race and Justice I published a piece exploring how legitimacy toward and bias on the part of the criminal justice system leads to a perpetuating cycle of disproportionate involvement in crime and punishment. This was published as "Racial disparities in the criminal justice system and perceptions of legitimacy: A theoretical linkage."
Another paper related to race and legitimacy of the criminal justice system looked at whether the lower opinion of the police on the part of African-Americans is a result of testing bias (differential item functioning). Chad Posick and I found that testing bias cannot account for the lower ratings of the police by minorities. This paper was also published in Race and Justice as "One scale fits all? Assessing racial differences in the measurement of attitudes toward the police."
Most recently, along with Ray Paternoster and Jacqueline Ghislaine Lee, a re-analysis of Georgia capital cases for an anthology honoring the work of the recently deceased David Baldus found that there is still racial bias in the handing down of capital sentences. This study can be found in the recently published Race in America and the future of the death penalty, edited by R. J. Maratea and David Keys.
Theory and Theory Testing
I am also fascinated with criminological (sociological and biosocial) theories. My master's thesis explored the ways in which different correctional contexts may affect social bonds (relationships) among prisoners. A follow-up looked to see whether changes during incarceration of those bonds had an effect on post-release behavior (called recidivism). Those papers were published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (paper) and Victims and Offenders (paper), respectively.
Other papers have looked at theories and policy practices surrounding school shootings, published in the Social Science Journal (paper), and how biosocial criminology may help inform crime prevention practices in an ethical way. The latter was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice (paper).
Biosocial criminology is an area that I am increasingly becoming interested in. The crime prevention piece in the Journal of Criminal Justice was my first foray into the topic. Since then, I have been fortunate enough to contribute chapters in Experimental Neurocriminology, and policy implications of biosocial research along with Adrian Raine and Brandon Welsh. Most recently, Chad Posick and Shanna Felix helped me develop a theory of how subcultures of violence emerge and are supported in inner-cities. For this paper, we drew upon the recent research on toxic stress and the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis.
A recent project, using data from the International Self-Report of Delinquency (ISRD), led by my advisor, Ineke Marshall, sought to explore criminal careers (of youth) across nations. This was published in the European Journal of Criminology in a special issue on comparative criminology.
Other Projects
I'm currently working on a number of other projects, including the 2nd edition of Nicole Rafter's great book, The criminal brain. This book explores the history of criminology, tracing its origins to psychiatry. The book also discusses prominent biological theories of crime, offering a sociological perspective on what has generally been a taboo subject. Our update (The criminal brain, 2nd ed) , which is available starting in August of 2016 covers more recent biosocial work.
Stemming from my work at the Maine Department of Corrections, a study that we conducted to determine whether staff were consistent with their risk assessments has recently been published at the Journal of Criminal Justice. The paper involved videotaping interviews and having random selected staff fill out the assessments based on the interviews.
Other correctional work includes a couple of projects with the fantastic Director of research at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Grant Duwe. First, we examined whether the Level of Service Inventory-Revised, a popular risk assessment tool used by corrections departments, predicts need as well as risk. That paper was published in the first volume of a new corrections journal (here). Our second project examined whether reliability of risk assessment impacts validity. That study is forthcoming in Criminology and Public Policy (February).