Area of Expertise: Criminology; violent crime; long-term violent crime trends in Washington, D.C.; causes of crime; media violence; poverty and crime; persistent, chronic offending

Additional Information: Joanne Savage is an associate professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University. She is primarily interested in the "big picture" of violence in society and, to that end, has been researching a wide variety of potential causes of violent offending. She has recently edited a book on the development of persistent criminality, and her interests include inequality and homicide, violence in the District of Columbia, the role of economic strain and social support in the etiology of violence, media violence and the differential etiology of violence and nonviolent crime. Her recent publications include "The Efects of Media Violence Exposure on Criminal Aggression: A Meta-Analysis" (2008) and "Economic Assistance and Crime: A Cross-national Investigation" (2008) in the European Journal of Criminology; "Interpreting 'Percent Black': An Analysis of Race and Violent Crime in Washington, D.C." forthcoming in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice; "Does Viewing Violent Media Really Cause Criminal Violence?" in Aggression and Violent Behavior; "Human Ecology, Crime and Crime Control" in Social Biology; and "Social Capital and the Human Psyche: Why Is Social Life 'Capital'?" in Sociological Theory

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