My current research focuses on two topics: 1) altruism, volunteering, and charitable giving, and 2) torture. I have also written a biography of the Union Civil War general George Thomas, and a book on the American asylum system.
Altruism, Volunteering, and Charitable Giving
Will the Boomers Volunteer During Retirement? Comparing the Baby Boom, Silent, and Long Civic Cohorts, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2009)
Data from the 1995 and 2005 waves of the Midlife in the United States panel...
Does Extensivity Form Part of the Altruistic Personality? An Empirical Test of Oliner and Oliners' Theory, Social Science Research (in press) (2009)
This paper tests Samuel and Pearl Oliner’s theory that extensivity is a cause of prosocial...
Empathic concern and prosocial behaviors: A test of experimental results using survey data, Social Science Research (2008)
This study uses survey data to test the correlation between empathic concern and fourteen different...
General George Thomas
George Thomas: Virginian for the Union (2007)
George Thomas was one of the Civil War's most prominent Southern Unionists, known for his...
Other publications
Sorority Membership and Risk for Campus Sexual Assault (with Jacqueline Minow), Violence Against Women (forthcoming) (2009)
This study tested the relationship between sexual assault victimization, sorority membership, and participation in a...
The Mercy Factory: Refugees and the American Asylum System (2001)
The Mercy Factory presents the stories of five asylum seekers, fleeing torture and persecution in...
Torture
Explaining Abu Ghraib: A Review Essay, Journal of Human Rights (2009)
Four books written by social scientists and published in 2007 are reviewed: The Trials of...
The Fall and Rise of Torture: A Comparative and Historical Analysis, Sociological Theory (2007)
Torture was formally abolished by European governments in the nineteenth century, and the actual practice...