Evaluating Philadelphia's Gun Court
EVALUATING PHILADELPHIA’S GUN COURT: IMPLICATIONS FOR CRIME REDUCTION AND SPECIALIZED JURISPRUDENCE By MATTHEW ROBIN NOBLES A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Matthew Robin Nobles 2 To my family, for sacrificing to provide me with opportunities to think, change, and grow. To Tasha, for reminding me always that dreams do come true. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my parents, grandparents, and all of my extended family for believing not so much in the venture, but in the person. I thank Tasha for all of her love and support, and for telling me what I needed to hear. I thank all of my colleagues and contemporaries in graduate school (especially Jeff, Carrie, and Kate) for making my work more enjoyable and rewarding than I could have ever expected. I thank the current and former faculty in Criminology, Law and Society at UF (especially Brian Stults, Karen Parker, Nicky Piquero, and Ron Akers) for nurturing a hometown prospect and for always keeping their office doors open. I am very thankful and greatly indebted to my supervisory committee (Chris Gibson, Lonn Lanza-Kaduce, Alex Piquero, and Richard Schneider) for their time, knowledge, accessibility, and most of all, patience. No graduate student could hope for better guidance, more insight, or a happier ending. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4
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