Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the viability of studying life course criminality issues of the onset of offending, persistence and chronic criminality among adult populations. Sampson and Laub have argued that important information on these issues can be gleaned from tracking people into middle and later stages of their lives. Using data for a population of both men and women from the combined files of juvenile police records, young adult police and court records, and subject interviews, this study underscores the declining significance of age in the study of desistance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Utilizing a sample of 400 street youths, the paper explores the relationship between early childhood trauma and alcohol and drug abuse. Respondents completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form (CTQ-SF) and answered a battery of questions on alcohol consumption and illegal drug use. The findings indicate that childhood trauma is associated with onset and prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Family and peers have long been central to our understandings of offending and desistance. In this article, I look at the role of family in the onset and desistance of drug use and criminal offending among a group of female ex-prisoners. The article is based on interviews with the women themselves and members of their social networks (parents, siblings, adult children, friends). Most of the women were first exposed to drug use and offending through family members, but actually began using drugs and/or offending with peers. In many cases, the women clearly identified family members as providing a context in which drug use was acceptable, though rarely was there whole-hearted acceptance of the behavior. This provided a difficult situation for many women as they tried to desist from drug use and offending. While they typically easily dissociated themselves from drug “associates,” and developed new friendships with others in recovery, distancing themselves from still-using family members was a greater challenge. Their ongoing struggle to desist and reestablish attenuated bonds with family was further strained when any member relapsed. While family members often did not use or offend with one another, their relapses further undermined trust and closeness with one another.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Despite the amount of attention to deal with causal factors of war and crisis, there has been little attempt to investigate the changing causal mechanism according to the process of escalation. This paper examines how to change the empirical relationship between identified causal factors and decisions of violent policy according to the escalation phases from the minimum levels of militarized dispute to the onset of war. In this study, I disaggregate the process of escalation into three phases (the initiation, evolution, and culmination phases) and identify three dependent variables (threat-based militarized dispute, dispute escalation, and the onset of war) that reflect the choice of violent policy in each phase. I argue that there is intrinsically different causal mechanism between prior to culmination phases and the culmination phase, because the policymaking process has been changed when declaring the war. I use two existing explanations to develop testable hypotheses from the democratic peace and the power transition research programs. The empirical results reveal that each phase’s different violence and threat generate patterns of decisions for violent policy throughout the process of escalation in a crisis. This suggests the way to refine the main arguments of democratic peace and power transition research programs, since my findings support them only if policymakers declare the war entering the culmination phase under the satisfaction with their own axiomatic assumptions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed