Dr. Tamara Humphrey
Position
Dr. Tamara Humphrey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. Prior to joining the department in 2018, Dr. Humphrey completed her PhD at the University of Calgary (2017) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Humphrey was also awarded the Outstanding Graduating Sociology Student award from the Canadian Sociological Association in 2017. Dr. Humphrey has been a Research Fellow of the Centre for Youth & Society since 2019.
Dr. Humphrey's research looks at the causes and consequences of aggression and violence over the life course. A central focus of Dr. Humphrey's work is childhood predictors of engaging in violence and aggression, with a particular emphasis on privilege, disadvantage, and victimization experiences early in development. Dr. Humphrey's work also examines the implications in adulthood for both victims and perpetrators of violence.
The children that were bullying in childhood and throughout adolescence are the same ones who go on to perpetrate sexual harassment, homophobic taunting, and dating violence. The implication here is that there are multiple intervention points.
— Dr. Tamara Humphrey
Additionally, Dr. Humphrey has been engaged in a variety of projects which examine aggression and competitiveness in youth and over the lifespan. With a focus on structural disadvantage, Dr. Humphrey's work also explores missed intervention points and intervention later in life. She is also involved with a project exploring the effectiveness of a series of community-led Latino men’s well-being groups in Alberta addressing issues of family violence and promoting healthy families and communities.
A lot of folks end up on these pathways through multiple missed opportunities and intervention points... They have very few opportunities to engage in healthy relationships.
— Dr. Tamara Humphrey
Dr. Humphrey is in the process of publishing her first book, Pathways to Ruin? High-Risk Offending over the Life Course. The book, which is anticipated to be published in 2022, utilizes a case-study approach to examine the factors during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood that lead to high-risk offending, as well as the factors which lead individuals to stop offending. This multidisciplinary approach investigates biological, psychological, and sociological factors that produce these trajectories with a focus on structural disadvantage and missed opportunities over the lifespan. The book further explores support measures, such as strong social systems, employment opportunities, and basic necessities, such as housing and healthcare, that are effective in stopping the cycle of offending.
Recent publications
Humphrey, T. & Vaillancourt, T. (2020). Longitudinal Relations between Bullying Perpetration, Sexual Harassment, Homophobic Taunting, and Dating Violence: Evidence of Heterotypic Continuity. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49. doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01307-w.
Humphrey, T. & Gibbs Van Brunschot, E. (2018). Accumulating (Dis)advantage: Do Social Bonds Mediate the Relationship Between Multiple Childhood Adversities and Persistent Offending?. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 4, 1-25. doi.org/10.1007%2Fs40865-018-0083-z.