schwartj@wsu.edu
509.335.2657
Wilson Hall 211

Jennifer Schwartz
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Penn State, 2003

Curriculum Vitae | Webpage | Courses

Current Research Interests: The unifying theme of my research is understanding how stratification and inequality impact level of crime and social control efforts. My research interests focus on identifying how position in the social structure (e.g., gender and race/ethnicity) interacts with structural features of communities (e.g., inequality, unemployment) to engender varying levels of crime and social control across place. I also have an interest in trends in crime and community sociology. My most current work examines how cross-community differences in family structure impact female and male levels of violence and also how changes in family structure have influenced trends in female and male violence.

Recent Publications:

Schwartz, Jennifer. ( 2006 ). “ Effects of Diverse Forms of Family Structure on Women's and Men's Homicide.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 68: 1292-1313.

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.