Professor Paul Light of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, talks with Michael Jacobson about the promise—and limits—of effecting social change in troubled economic times, in the first podcast from the 2011 season of the Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series.
In this podcast, part of the 2010-2011 Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series, Rob Smith discusses a 15-year ethnographic research project following more than 100 children of Mexican immigrants to the United States. Although he found that almost 40 percent of these individuals attended college and had other positive outcomes, undocumented children lose legal protections as they move into early adulthood and their opportunities become severely limited, prompting what Smith calls “profound and serious moral and ethical questions.” Smith is a professor of sociology at Baruch College and CUNY Graduate Center.
In this podcast, part of the 2010-2011 Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series, Jeffrey A. Fagan discusses racial profiling by police and suggests reforms in court-mandated consent decrees that would ensure better outcomes for minority communities as well as policing practices overall.
In this podcast—part of The Vera Institute of Justice Research Speaker Series—psychologist Chitra Raghavan explains the concepts of "coercive sex" and "sexual assault" as they apply to people who know one another. Operating from the assumption that all sexual relationships are about negotiation, and that the rules of negotiation may differ across cultures and gender roles, Raghavan outlines how unwanted sex is acquired through a variety of emotionally coercive dynamics in heterosexual couples and posits that different rules apply in same-sex couples.
In this podcast—part of The Vera Institute of Justice Research Speaker Series—psychologist Chitra Raghavan explains the concepts of "coercive sex" and "sexual assault" as they apply to people who know one another. Operating from the assumption that all sexual relationships are about negotiation, and that the rules of negotiation may differ across cultures and gender roles, Raghavan outlines how unwanted sex is acquired through a variety of emotionally coercive dynamics in heterosexual couples and posits that different rules apply in same-sex couples.
In this podcast, Rodolfo Estrada, senior program associate of Vera's Center on Immigration and Justice, discusses law enforcement use of the U-visa. The U-visa provides temporary legal status to immigrant crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement. Joining Rodolfo are Edna Yang, legal counsel at American Gateways and consultant with Legal Momentum, Deputy Chief Pete Helein of the Appleton Police Department in Wisconsin, and Lieutenant Chris Cole of the Storm Lake Police Department in Iowa.
In this podcast, Rodolfo Estrada, senior program associate of Vera's Center on Immigration and Justice, discusses law enforcement use of the U-visa. The U-visa provides immigration status to undocumented victims of crime who cooperate with law enforcement. Joining Rodolfo are Edna Yang, legal counsel at American Gateways and consultant with Legal Momentum, Deputy Chief Pete Helein of the Appleton Police Departmentment in Wisconsin, and Lieutenant Chris Cole of the Storm Lake Police Department in Iowa.
In this podcast New York University sociologist David W. Garland discusses his book, "Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition." Garland presents evidence that the death penalty in the United States fails to realize its stated goals. Yet it persists here—alone among developed nations—because it serves social and political ends.
In this podcast from the Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series, David Weisburd, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University discusses his groundbreaking study of micro-geographic units or “hot spots” in predicting and preventing crime. Weisburd is the director of George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. He also serves as director of the Institute of Criminology at the Hebrew University. In 2010 Weisburd won the prestigious Stockholm Prize in Criminology for this work.
The Vera Institute of Justice's Neil A. Weiner Research Speaker Series features David C. Brotherton, professor and chair of the sociology department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY. In this podcast, Brotherton discusses an alternative view of gangs in the era of globalization. While police and domestic security agencies have characterized gangs as international criminal groups that present a grave threat to national security, Brotherton argues that there is no social scientific evidence to support that perspective. He describes his cross-cultural and transnational research on 21st-century gangs and his findings that, contrary to decades of social scientific assumptions about their antisocial nature, gangs around the world are engaged in movements for political and social change.
Jim Parsons, director of The Vera Institute of Justice's Substance Use and Mental Health Program, discusses a pilot project mapping the life-course of incarcerated women with mental illness and substance use histories.