The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences are pleased to present the 6th Ray Paternoster Memorial Lecture and reception in honor of Professor Ray Paternoster to celebrate his life and scholarship in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and in the profession.
 

Abstract:

Guardianship, a key element of informal social control, is central to two influential theories in criminology and sociology: routine activity theory and collective efficacy. Two distinct forms, reactive and proactive, should be distinguished. In reactive guardianship, an individual or a small group responds to an ongoing criminal incident or a potentially harmful situation. People balance prosocial motivation to help others against safety and social costs associated with intervening. In proactive guardianship, community members come together to improve public safety, such as by organizing block watches. It requires ongoing participation rather than a one-shot reactive decision to intervene. A challenge is to overcome the “free rider” problem of individuals who benefit from improved public safety but do not contribute to it. In this talk I will summarize the findings of an ongoing research program into both forms of guardianship.

Speaker:

Daniel S. Nagin is the Lester Hamburg University Professor of Public Policy and Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College and a Max Planck Law Fellow. He is an elected Fellow or Member of several distinguished organizations, including the American Society of Criminology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the development of criminal and antisocial behavior over the life course, the deterrent effects of criminal and non-criminal penalties, and statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal data. His work has appeared in leading journals across criminology, sociology, economics, statistics, psychology, and law. He is the author of Group-Based Modeling of Development (Harvard University Press, 2005) and has received numerous honors, including the Stockholm Prize in Criminology and the American Society of Criminology’s Edwin H. Sutherland and August Vollmer Awards. For more information, visit here.

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

• 2:00-3:30 p.m. Lecture, Stamp, Prince George's Room 1211
• 3:30-4:30 p.m. Reception, Stamp, Prince George's Room 1211

Please RSVP to by Tuesday, October 20, 2026.

For additional information or questions, contact Jessica Townsend, jessicat [at] umd.edu.

Additional gifts in honor of Professor Ray Paternoster can be made here.