Areas of Research Interest
Criminology, Stratification, Social Change, Communities/Urban Stratification

Current Research Interests
My research agenda focuses on understanding how stratification relates to differences across place and changes over time in the level of crime committed and the amount of social control exerted. In particular, I seek to understand how gender structures the amount and type of involvement in offending and also official reactions to crime. Additionally, my research is concerned with how gender and other offender demographics interact with structural characteristics of communities, such as family structure or poverty level, to engender varying rates of crime across communities and/or historical periods. I draw mainly on macrolevel methodologies and a comparative perspective to assess similarities and differences within and across social groups communities, and historical time periods in an effort to uncover common mechanisms related to criminal offending.

Curriculum Vitae
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Selected Publications (Click on title to view)

Schwartz, J., D. Steffensmeier, H. Zhong, and J. Ackerman. 2009. "Trends in the gender gap in violence: Re-evaluating NCVS and other evidence." Criminology 47(2):701-724. Supplemental Web site

Schwartz, Jennifer and Bryan D. Rookey (2008). "The Narrowing Gender Gap in Arrests: Assessing Competing Explanations using Self-Report, Traffic Fatality, and Official Data on Drunk Driving, 1980-2004." Criminology 46(3):637-672.

Schwartz, Jennifer (2008). "Gender Differences in Drunk Driving Prevalence Rates and Trends: A 20-year Assessment using Multiple Sources of Evidence." Addictive Behaviors 33:1217-1222.

Schwartz, Jennifer (2008). "Effects of Two Sources of Male Capital on Female and Male Rates of Violence: Men in Families and Old Heads." Sociological Perspectives 51(1):91-117.

Schwartz, Jennifer (2006). "Effects of Diverse Forms of Family Structure on Women's and Men's Homicide.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 68: 1292-1303.

Schwartz, Jennifer (2006). “Family Structure as a Source of Female and Male Homicide in the United States.” Homicide Studies, 10(4): 253-278.

Steffensmeier, Darrell, Jennifer Schwartz, Hua Zhong, and Jeff Ackerman. (2005). “An Assessment of Recent Trends in Girls' Violence Using Diverse Longitudinal Sources: Is The Gender Gap Closing?” Criminology 43(2): 355-406.

Steffensmeier, Darrell and Jennifer Schwartz. (2003). "Trends in Female Crime: It's Still a Man's World" In The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Victims, and Workers, edited by Barbara Raffel Price and Natalie J. Sokoloff. NY: Mc-Graw Hill, Inc.

Steffensmeier, Darrell and Jennifer Schwartz. (2003). "Contemporary Explanations of Female Offending" In The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Victims, and Workers, edited by Barbara Raffel Price and Natalie J. Sokoloff. NY: Mc-Graw Hill, Inc.

Schwartz, Jennifer and Jeff Ackerman. (2001). "In Search of a Dependent Variable: Comment on Avakame, 1998" Criminology 39(4):301-312.