AUSTIN, Texas–The Shaw-Cotera Youth Violence Consortium and the Center for Criminology and Criminal Justice Research at The University of Texas at Austin is sponsoring a forum focusing on the causes and prevention of youth violence.
The forum will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Nov. 2, in the Thompson Conference Center Auditorium on the UT Austin campus and it is free and open to the public.
The Shaw-Cotera Youth Violence Consortium was formed after the murders of two young men, Brandon Shaw and Juan J. Cotera, in Austin in July, 1997. The consortium’s mission is to facilitate collaboration between UT, public agencies and the community to eliminate youth violence.
The Nov. 2 forum will feature renowned national experts on youth violence–Rolf Loeber of the Univeristy of Pittsburgh, James Short of Washington State University and Robert Dawson of UT Austin–who will address what we know about youth violence, what we still need to know, what we are doing about youth violence, and what we still need to do. Attendees will be welcomed by Congressman Lloyd Doggett and Sheldon Ekland-Olson, executive vice president and provost at UT Austin.
A panel discussion will follow the featured presentations and will involve other experts on youth violence and juvenile justice–Tony Fabelo of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council, Michael Lauderdale of UT Austin, Elaine Rodney of Prairie View A&M University, Vicki Spriggs of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and Johnny Sutton of the Office of the Governor.
The Shaw-Cotera Youth Violence Consortium is part of the Center for Criminology and Criminal Justice Research at UT Austin. The mission of the center is to conduct basic and applied research research on the causes and consequences of crime; to provide a means for faculty, criminal justice administrators, policy makers, and practitioners to exchange knowledge and expertise; and to facilitate collaborative research between UT researchers and the local, state and national criminal justice communities.