Jeannette Wade

Author(s): Jeannette Wade and Dr. Rob Peralta                         

Title: “Perceived Racial Discrimination, Heavy Episodic Drinking and Alcohol Abstinence among African American and White College Students”

Where: Journal of Ethnicity on Substance Abuse, forthcoming

Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that white college students are more likely to drink alcohol at a greater frequency and quantity compared to their African American counterparts.  Examining race-related factors that structure alcohol use among college students remains an important area of research. This study specifically examines perceived discrimination and its association with both heavy episodic drinking (HED) and alcohol abstinence among college students. Items that measured perceived racial discrimination in alcohol use contexts and demographic characteristics were used as independent and control variables.  African American students were more likely to abstain from alcohol and less likely to engage in HED compared to their white counterparts.  Results also suggest that students who believe their drinking will solicit race-based police bias, have lower odds of engaging in HED and greater odds of alcohol abstention.  We conclude that unsolicited policing, experienced by African Americans generally, and white Americans on campuses, explains the effect sizes.

Racheal Pesta

Author(s): Rania Issa and Racheal Pesta

Title: "A Comparative Case Analysis of Homicides and Suicides in Cuyahoga County from 2004 to 2014”

Where: Poster presented at the 2015 American Society of Criminology Meetings in Washington, DC

Abstract: Typically scholars study homicide and suicide separately. As such, little is known about what these two types of lethal violence have in common. Using data from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, this study employs a comparative analysis to examine the similarities and differences between homicides and suicides over a 10-year period. The data includes demographic characteristics of the victim including race, sex, age, and marital status. By using comparative analysis we are able to identify the shared and distinct characteristics between two types of lethal violence. With the results of this study, we hope to bridge the gap between these two literatures by illuminating the similarities between them.

Author(s): Racheal Pesta MS, Robert Peralta Ph.D., and Megan Novisky Ph.D. candidate

Title:  “Behavioral Responses to Psychological Intimate Partner Violence from a General Strain Framework: Are Responses Gendered?”

Where: In progress!

Abstract: We know from the violence literature that a distinct sex disparity exists in the perpetration of other-directed violence (ODV). Some scholars suggest that this disparity is explained in part by gendered reactions to stress, strain or violence victimization, in which males express emotional pain or frustration outwardly by engaging in violence against others whereas females express pain inwardly via self-harming techniques.  Using a college sample, we investigated the behavioral responses of male and female victims of psychological intimate partner abuse.  We found that while there is a distinct sex disparity in the use of ODV as a coping mechanism, with male victims resorting to physical violence more so than female victims, we also find a gender disparity.  Our results indicate that while masculine men are the most likely to utilize ODV followed by masculine women.  These findings suggest that gender, particularly masculinity, has an effect on the utilization of ODV net biological sex.