Rachel Swaner
Research Director
Leadership
Rachel Swaner is the research director at the Center. She has led local and national research and evaluation projects related to violence prevention, the sex trade, youth development, and people’s experiences with the criminal justice system. Prior to joining the Center, she was a researcher at the Harlem Children’s Zone. Rachel received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Administration degrees from New York University, and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center. She is a professor at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and is a board member for the Participatory Budgeting Project.
Publications
- ‘Keep Showing Us That You’re Here for Us’: Rockaway Youth Talk About Safety, Justice, and Programming
- Participatory Research: What Is It and How Can It Strengthen Your Reentry Program Evaluation?
- Legal Responses to Trafficking Evaluability Assessments
- Guns, Safety, and the Edge of Adulthood in New York City
- An Interdisciplinary Approach to Reducing Minority Youth Violence
- Procedural Justice at the Manhattan Criminal Court
- What Do Defendants Really Think?
- Navigating Force and Choice: Experiences in the New York City Sex Trade and the Criminal Justice System's Response
- The Brownsville Anti-Violence Project: Evaluation Findings
- Youth Involvement in the Sex Trade: A National Study
- An Outcome Evaluation of the Defending Childhood Demonstration Program
- Through the NOVA Door: A Process Evaluation of Shelby County’s Defending Childhood Initiative
- Nawicakiciji – Woasniye – Oaye Waste: A Process Evaluation of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Defending Childhood Initiative
- “We Have the Power to Stop the Violence”: A Process Evaluation of Cuyahoga County’s Defending Childhood Initiative
- Protect, Heal, Thrive: Lessons Learned from the Defending Childhood Demonstration Program
- Community Courts
- A Community Court Grows in Brooklyn: A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Red Hook Community Justice Center (Full Report)
- Deterrence and Legitimacy in Brownsville, Brooklyn: A Process Evaluation of the Brownsville Anti-Violence Project
- The U.S. Attorney General’s Defending Childhood Initiative: Formative Evaluation of the Phase I Demonstration Program
- Evaluation of the Youth Justice Board: Impact on Alternative-to-Detention Policy in New York City, 2008-2010
- Drifting Between Worlds: Delinquency and Positive Engagement among Red Hook Youth
- Community Perceptions of Red Hook, Brooklyn: Views of Quality of Life, Safety, and Services
- Teens Educating about Community Health: Examining the Efficacy of an HIV/Substance Abuse Peer Education Program
- A Pilot Program on Youth Engagement: Lessons from Youth ECHO
- Increasing the Voice of Youth: Strategies for New York City Teens Influencing Public Policy
