Associate Professor; Director, Graduate Studies in Criminal Justice
twarner2@uab.edu
UBOB 216

Research and Teaching Interests:

• Victimization
• Health & Well-being
• Firearm Ownership & Attitudes
• Adolescence & Emerging Adulthood

Office Hours: By appointment

Education:

• BA, Louisiana State University, Sociology
• BS, Louisiana State University, Psychology
• MA, The Pennsylvania State University, Crime, Law, and Justice
• PhD, Bowling Green State University, Sociology

As a sociological criminologist, my research is at the intersection of victimology, life course sociology, and health. My scholarship explores the processes, situations, and contexts in which victimization and risk-taking behaviors are embedded and unfold during adolescence and into adulthood. More specifically, have focused on two key developmental contexts: interpersonal/intimate relationships and communities. In ongoing work on relational contexts, I examine the consequences of youth violent victimization for later socioemotional development, relationship formation, and intimate relationship risk-taking behaviors. My research on community contexts began with a focus on the developmental consequences of neighborhood disadvantage, with my early-career work capturing geographic variation in and correlates of deviant risk-taking behaviors (e.g., substance use, risky sex). In more recent and ongoing research, I extend my focus on the interdependence between individuals and their physical, social, and cultural environments through specific work on protective firearm behaviors and attitudes as responses to social and cultural threats. I have designed and conducted surveys that delve into the motivations behind Americans’ decisions about owning, storing, and using firearms.

My research has appeared in top journals in sociology and criminology (American Sociological Review, Criminology, Justice Quarterly), as well as top specialty journals focused on adolescence and health (e.g., Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Journal of Research on Adolescence, Journal of Youth and Adolescence), and top specialty journals focused on victimization (e.g., Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence and Victims, Violence and Gender).

I teach undergraduate and graduate courses on victimization, juvenile delinquency, violence, research methods, and the social context of crime.

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