Winner of 2019 College of Applied Sciences and Technology Outstanding Researcher Award
Joanne Savage is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Sciences at Illinois State University. She is interested in the “big picture” of violence in our society and has researched a wide variety of sub-areas related to violent offending including the development of aggression in children and structural factors. Her recent papers have discussed topics such as academic achievement and parental attachment; earlier papers centered on inequality, race, and media violence. Her work is textured by her interest in evolutionary ecology and a rigorous skepticism with strong emphasis on reigning in conclusions to within methodological limits set by empirical research. Her book, Thugs and Thieves: The Differential Etiology of Violence (with Kevin Wozniak) asked whether the existing literature supported various “good prospects” for distinguishing violent from nonviolent offenders (good prospects such as poverty, education, drugs and alcohol, parental relationships in childhood, and abuse and trauma). She also has a long-standing interest in understanding the persistence of offending beyond adolescence, as seen in her 2009 book, The Development of Persistent Criminality (J. Savage [Ed.], Oxford University Press) and related articles. In recent years, Professor Savage has turned her attention to applying these nuanced understandings of the causes of violent behavior to violence prevention and juvenile justice, and returning to a long-standing interest in international study.
Recent Articles
- The role of income in the differential etiology of violence: An empirical test
- Academic achievement, school attachment, and school problems in the differential etiology of violence
- Unnecessary force by police: Insights from evolutionary psychology
- Sex offender residence restrictions and sex crimes against children: A comprehensive review
- Physical abuse victimization and violence in the transition to adulthood: The mediating role of alcohol and drug use
Books
The Development of Persistent Criminality
Savage, J. (Ed.). Oxford University Press
Thugs and Thieves: The Differential Etiology of Violence
Savage, J., & Wozniak, K. Oxford University Press
Other Publications
- The effect of academic achievement on aggression and violent behavior: A meta-analysis
- Media violence (Encyclopedia of Adolescence)
- Long-term effects of neglect on violence: Are they spurious or indirect?
- Intergenerational transmission: Physical abuse and violent vs. nonviolent criminal outcomes
- The association between attachment, parental bonds and physically aggressive and violent behavior: A comprehensive review
- Balancing counter-terrorism strategies: Lessons from evolutionary ecology
- Homicide and inequality in ‘the murder capital’
- Mixed-use development and crime
- The effects of media violence exposure on criminal aggression: A meta-analysis
- Economic assistance and crime: A cross-national investigation
- Interpreting ‘percent black’: An analysis of race and violent crime in Washington DC
- Social capital and the human psyche: Why is social life ‘capital’?
- Does viewing violent media really cause criminal violence? A methodological review
- Human ecology, crime, and crime control: Linking individual behavior and aggregate crime
- Social capital, crime, and human nature
