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Phillips, S., Matusko, J., & Tomasovic, E. (2007). Reconsidering the relationship between alcohol and lethal violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22(1), 66-84.

Abstract: Drawing on interviews with men imprisoned for an aggravated assault or homicide committed in response to a conflict with another man, we examine matched pairs of violent and nonviolent conflicts nested within respondents. The results suggest that guns mediate the relationship between alcohol and lethal male-male violence.

Questions to Consider:

1. Discuss Conventional Event-Based Designs versus Matched Pairs.

2. Why was it impossible, for example, to determine whether respondents were truthful about their level of intoxication during both conflicts? 

Harding, D. J. (2009). Violence, older peers, and the socialization of adolescent boys in disadvantaged neighborhoods. American Sociological Review, 74(3), 445-464.

Abstract: Most theoretical perspectives on neighborhood effects on youth assume that the neighborhood serves as a source of socialization, particularly for adolescents. Through differential exposure to behavioral models or cultural ideas, disadvantaged neighborhoods are thought to influence how young people make decisions in domains such as schooling and romantic relationship.

Questions to Consider:

1. How does a neighborhood affect adolescent boys’ socialization?

2. Discuss the neighborhood disadvantage and interaction with older peers.