~ RGVRC Affiliate Scholar ~

Tara D. Warner, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is also a Center scholar at the UAB Center for the Study of Community Health, and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Family and Demographic Research at Bowling Green State University (where she earned her Ph.D. in Sociology). As a sociological criminologist, her research sits at the intersection of victimology, life course sociology, and health, with specific attention to how individuals experience and respond to threats, such as violence and victimization. Currently, she explores how victimization fears and group status threats shape firearm-related attitudes and behaviors in the US, including gun interest and identity, protective gun ownership, and unsafe in-home gun storage. Her work has appeared in top journals in sociology and criminology (American Sociological Review, Criminology), specialty journals focused on adolescence and health (Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of Youth and Adolescence), and specialty journals focused on victimization (Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence and Victims, Violence and Gender). Her recent work appearing in Injury Prevention illustrates the importance of sociocultural threat and anxiety as barriers to implementing secure in-home firearm storage.