Major influences on my writing are social and national events.  Kids killing kids led to my wanting to do research inside the state youth prisons and interview kids who had killed other kids.  That's how I happened to coin the word "adolescentcide" (kids killing kids). My interviews became my research project for my doctoral studies. When my research was all over and I had graduated, the Columbine tragedy occurred shortly thereafter. I was asked to be a keynote speaker at the first commemoration ceremony to honor the memories of the slain Columbine High School victims.  That same year, my nonfiction book, "Jack and Jill, Why They Kill," based on my four-year in-person/in-prison research on kids who killed, was published. The book gave me a huge media profile and led to many guest appearances as a juvenile and adolescent expert on television.  It also created an entirely new career for me, as an expert witness in criminal and civil courts. I love hanging out in bookstores and, with laptop in tow, arranging my days and weekends so that my family and I can do our work (and my kids their studying) at Borders Books, for example, and take breaks by browsing through the stacks of books and sampling both new and familiar works alike.  I also get inspired by reading the articles of newspaper columnists whose investigative reportage has won national awards.  I find that their fact-finding and writing skills have been honed by having to take a mountain of information and plow, till, and cultivate it for mass consumption, to heighten interest and, sometimes, issue a call to action.

The Phi Delta Kappa "Best Dissertation of the Year Award," Mt. Baldy Chapter, for doctoral research.

The California State Legislature's "Certification of Recognition."