Law Commons^™

Gun Related Youth Violence: Fear Of Victimization Versus The Influence Of Significant Others, Ryan Spohn, Samantha Lane

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Differential association/social learning theories have received considerable empirical support as an explanation of participation in delinquent acts, including violent delinquency (Heimer 1997). More recently, and primarily as a result of highly publicized school shootings in suburban high schools, fear of crime and victimization have received attention as motivators of gun-carrying and gun violence. These phenomena are generally not examined in unison, however, leaving open the question of their relative role as a cause of gun carrying and violence amongst youth. The current research project addresses this question. A major strength of the current research is the adoption of multiple measures …

Review Of Fathers Under Fire: The Revolution In Child Support Enforcement, By Irwin Garfinkel, Sara S. Mclanahan, Daniel R. Meyer, And Judith A. Seltzer, Ryan Spohn

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

The title of this book adequately reflects its timely focus on nonresidential fathers facing increased child support enforcement, examining how child support contributions (or failure to meet child support obligations) affect the lives of children as well as the fathers themselves. As the authors suggest, nonresident fathers have generally been treated as financial resources, with little attention paid to their rights as parents or their needs as providers for their children. A particular focus of this collection of studies is the role of indigent nonresident fathers and their role as parents and providers. Consequently, the scope of study adopted by …

Review Of The Cultural Lives Of Capital Punishment: Comparative Perspectives Edited By Austin Sarat And Christian Boulanger, Ryan Spohn

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

This volume examines the interconnectivity of culture and punishment across an impressive variety of states and nations. The authors convincingly argue that research is strengthened by developing an understanding of the "cultural life" of capital punishment, defined as the embeddedness of this punishment in the discourse and symbolic practices of specific locales and times. This book is abolitionist in nature, representing the praxis of social research.

The editors argue that independent variables like crime rates, economics, religion, and public opinion fail to explain international variation in the use of the death penalty. Eschewing variables, they argue for analysis of individual …