Laurie Schaffner
University of California, Berkeley, 2000 (Sociology)
Assistant Professor
Office: BSB 4060C

Department of Criminal Justice
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 West Harrison Street, M/C 141
Chicago, IL 60607
e-mail: schaff@uic.edu
tel: 312/996-8844
fax: 312/996-8355

Fields of Interest:

Juvenile Law
Gender, Sexuality, and the State
Qualitative Urban Research Methodology

Short Bio:

Dr. Schaffner's work focuses on youth in trouble with the law and the sociological and political responses by the juvenile corrections systems, both legal and psychiatric. Drawing upon research using interviews, ethnography, cultural documents, and secondary national data, she examines shifts in the constitution of trouble for girls as compared with boys in the legal system, other adolescent girls, and young women a century ago. Dr. Schaffner is a Faculty Scholar at the Great Cities Institute. Her current work, Girls In Trouble with the Law, critiques orthodox delinquency theories by uncovering ways in which contemporary youth are punished for the transgressing mainstream gender norms. This research, focusing on young women in their lives in their urban neighborhoods, argues that gender-responsive programs and policies must challenge conventional adolescent stereotypes. Her work has earned awards from the American Sociological Association, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and the American Society of Criminology, and she is a co-founder of the Chicago For Girls Coalition. Dr. Schaffner's anthology, with co-editor Dr. Elizabeth Bernstein, Controlling Intimacy: Gender, Sexuality, and the Law, is forthcoming from Routledge.

Selected Publications:

"An Age of Reason: Paradoxes in Legal Constructions of Adulthood, " 2002, International Journal of Children Rights 10: 201-232.

"Chapter Eight: Capturing Girls' Experiences of Community Violence " Christine Alder and Anne Worral, editors, Girls Violence: Myths and Realities, NY: SUNY Press, in press (2003).

Teenage Runaways: Broken Hearts and 'Bad Attitudes.' New York: Haworth Press, 1999.

"Violence and Female Delinquency: Gender Transgressions and Gender Invisibility," Berkeley Women's Law Journal, Berkeley, CA, Volume 14, Spring 1999: 40-65.

"Do Bad Girls Get a Bum Rap? Sexual Solutions and State Interventions," Millenium Girls: Today's Girls and Their Cultures, Sherrie Inness, editor, New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998:269-295.

"Female Juvenile Delinquency: Sexual Solutions and Gender Bias in Juvenile Justice," Hasting Women's Law Journal, Volume 9, No. 1, (Winter 1997) 1-27.

"Families on Probation: Court-Ordered Parenting Skills Classes for Parents of Juvenile Offenders," Crime and Delinquency, 43 (4) 1997: 412-437.