911 calls reporting the mysterious disappearance of a child may contain information critical to law enforcement. If this information is untruthful, valuable resources can be misdirected and precious time may be lost. Therefore, the current study examined verbal cues of veracity and deception in 911 calls placed by caregivers of missing children.…

We examine and compare the relationship between minimum wage increases and youth homicide rates in three groups: all youth, White youth only, and Black youth only. Using 2001-2019 mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) for all 50 states and Washington DC, we apply a difference in differences (DD) design to compare the…

Research on firearm purchaser licensing laws has found population level reductions in firearm-related mortality. Limited research has been conducted specifically examining the impact of these laws among adolescents and emerging adults. We obtained death data from the National Center for Health Statistics from 1990 to 2019. We generated state-year…

The definition of what constitutes a conflict, in terms of both time and events, has been consistently debated in the historical study of social phenomena. What has become increasingly clear, however, is that the methods used to define it are generally biased as they are highly dependent on the perceptions of the researchers who establish them.…

Recent research indicates that children with autism are at increased risk of maltreatment. We examined news media reports on homicide incidents involving children with autism as victims in the United States between 2000 and 2019. Of the 52 victims studied, 47 (90.4%) were male. Age of victims ranged from 2 to 20 years (mean = 10.4 ± 5.3 years).…

Students, families, and communities across Chicago are affected by gun violence, but the levels and experiences differ greatly by location and by the racial composition of communities. In Chicago, recent rates of violence rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then declined to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Still, there were more than 4,000…

This paper estimates the acute effect of community-level homicides on early childhood language development and explores the moderating role of maternal efficacy and satisfaction in Chile. It uses data from the 2017 wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey of Chilean Children (N = 1194, M[subscript age]: 52.8 months, 52% girls). Children in…

Following the homicide of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, young adults participated widely in national protests against racism and police brutality. This study examined temporal trends and correlates of self-reported distress about police brutality from May 18 to August 3, 2020 among a cohort of young adults (ages 19-22; N = 2,080) from Los Angeles,…

Missing body homicide cases have gained public interest globally due to some high-profile cases. In many of these cases, the task of locating the victim's remains relies on the information investigators can gain through the interviewing of willing suspects. To date, investigative interviewing research has largely focused on the retrieval of…

This paper presents a reflective analysis of a novel approach to Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to teach abstract concepts in a large-class setting, specifically tailored for a third-year required undergraduate course, "Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering." The primary objective is to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes…

Given the spike of homicides in conflict zones of Colombia after the 2016 peace agreement, I study the causal effect of violence on college test scores. Using a difference-in-difference design with heterogeneous effects, I show how this increase in violence had a negative effect on college learning, and how this negative effect is mediated by…

This study examined the impact of the racial justice movement that emerged in the United States after the murder of George Floyd and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the discussion around equity and diversity initiatives in a predominantly White school district. We conducted thematic analyses of public communications of school…

This article analyzes how schools in the U.S respond to trauma in children and teens after the homicide of a peer and provides suggestions for best practices. The focus is not on in-school mass shootings but on homicide of young people outside of schools, in neighborhoods, which is the leading cause of death for African Americans between ages 15…

On August 3rd, 2019, a racially-charged mass shooting occurred at Walmart in El Paso, TX that killed 23 people and injured another 23. Following the Walmart shooting, students in this borderland region wrote essays related to their experiences. We used the themes we identified to inform implications for teaching writing and composition for middle…

Growing up in socioeconomic disadvantage increases risk of peer bullying at school. Both socioeconomic status and involvement in bullying are predictive of a range of adverse developmental outcomes. However, neither (a) the mechanisms whereby disadvantage increases bullying risk nor (b) the developmental outcomes for which bullying may mediate…