Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The available evaluation literature suggests that gun buyback programs are not effective in reducing gun violence. However, many communities still adopt these approaches to deal with gun violence problems. This paper presents an evaluation of a gun buyback program initiated in Boston during the summer of 2006 to address a sharp increase in gang-related gun violence. We evaluate the program along four dimensions: 1) statistical analyses of gun homicides, gun suicides, and non-fatal shootings before and after the program was implemented, 2) an examination of ATF trace data to determine whether the buyback guns resemble Boston crime guns, 3) an analysis of ballistics imaging data to determine whether buyback guns had been used in prior gun crimes, and 4) qualitative interviews with community members, local politicians, and Boston police officers to determine whether the program had any non-crime control benefits such as improving police-community relations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper describes aspects of the conceptual context and the background for our current study of the identity perception Brazilian immigrant women in the Boston, MA area have of themselves. More specifically, the current, larger study will explore how, within the context of globalization, Brazilian women’s notions of gender, race, ethnicity, nation, class and immigrant status are negotiated, combined, and recombined and how the perception and negotiation of identity, as immigrants, affect Brazilian women’s ideas about their quality of life. In this paper, because of time and space constraints, we look at specific components of the conceptual context for our work, we highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the pioneering work on Brazilians in the Boston area, we describe several themes of globalization relevant to our research questions on identity and belonging and, finally, we report here on some preliminary findings from the interviews that we have begun to conduct with Brazilian women in the Boston area.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Asian Americans in the selected
Boston enclaves are increasingly active in multiple modes of civic and
political participation. But there is quite a distance for them to
catch up with the rest of the population. Having more resources in the
form of financial and human capital would enhance Asian American
participation, as well as narrow the gap with the rest of the
population. The pattern of Asian American community organizing varies
with the needs of the individual enclaves. The more resourceful
enclaves focus on cultural and spiritual enrichment alone,
but they may provide significant leadership to other communities with
fewer resources. The less resourceful enclaves balance the two with
providing social services and a voice to help the community participate
more fully in the economic and political affairs of the larger society.
The lack of resources in community organizing can be offset by
favorable public policies as in the case of Cambodian Americans in
Lowell and Lynn. The case of the city of Boston demonstrates that
active organizing at the collective community level may stimulate
various forms of individual Asian American civic and political
participation to a point far beyond the prediction based on the
financial and human resources in the enclave.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: No abstract available.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: No abstract available.