About

David Martinez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics, the Divinity School, and the College at the University of Chicago. His research and teaching focus on Greek papyrology and paleography, Hellenistic authors, early Christian literature, and the Hellenistic background of the New Testament. He has authored two books on magical and early Christian documents and has published articles on documentary Greek papyri, ancient Greek religion, and magic. His current projects include the publication of the papyri collection from the University of Texas at Austin, which mainly date from the Ptolemaic period and include several documentary types that document the activity and ethos of Hellenistic-era guilds. He is also engaged in projects that utilize papyri as evidence for ancient Greek religion, cult, and ritual, as well as articles that connect papyrological research to the study of Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. Other areas of interest include Greek prose, rhetoric, philosophy, the Corpus Hermeticum, patristics, the interpretatio Graeca of Egyptian culture and religion, and the classical world and the Ancient Near East.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Criminology
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Political science

Selected publications

• Voice Handicap Index--10; Latin-American Spanish Version

  PsycTESTS Dataset · 2022-01-01

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• The Underage Consumption of Alcohol and Driving While Intoxicated by College Students

  2018-05-18

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Blackstone's criminal law index: case precedents 1900-1997

  Books | UK Encyclopedia of Law · 2017-07-31

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Charles E. Odgers

  Biographies | United Kingdom Encyclopedia of Law · 2016-06-25

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• In It for the Long Haul: Exploring Gender Dynamics in Former Prisoner-Family Relationship

  2014-04-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article contributes to the growing body of literature on the role of families of origin in the reentry of former prisoners by focusing on a group of young men of color recently released from prison. Our in-depth interviews with young men and selected family members highlighted the ongoing importance of their family relationships for providing important emotional and instrumental support. These relationships also are gendered. In relationships with female relatives, the former prisoners’ primary role was to be there for the women in the family and thereby demonstrate their love of family and their commitment to desistance from crime, while the women provided them care, advice, and emotional support. In relationships with young male relatives, the former prisoners took a more active role, attempting  to mentor the young men so they would avoid the same problems or steer their lives in a more positive direction. This article is one step in exploring how family relationships and gender dynamics function in the lives of returning prisoners.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How Offenders Transform Their Lives

  Willan eBooks · 2013-01-11 · 28 citations

  book

  1. Identity transformation and offender change, Bonita M. Veysey, Damian J. Martinez and Johnna Christian 2. Moments of transformation: formerly incarcerated individuals' narratives of change, Johnna Christian, Bonita M. Veysey, Bryn Herrschaft and Heather Tubman-Carbone 3. Looking-glass identity transformation: Pygmalion and Golem in the rehabilitation process, Shadd Maruna, Thomas P. Lebel, Michelle Naples and Nick Mitchell 4. Former prisoners, their family members, and the transformative potential of support, Damian J. Martinez 5. 'I got a quick tongue': negotiating ex-convict identity in mixed company, Lois Presser and Suzanne Kurth 6. Thinking inside the box: prisoner education, learning identities, and the possibilities for change, Emma Hughes 7. Accounts of change and resistance among women prisoners, Barbara Owen 8. Parole supervision, change in the self, and desistance from substance use and crime, Merry Morash 9. Identity change through the transformation model of L.I.F.E.R.S., Inc., M. Kay Harris 10. Formerly incarcerated persons' use of advocacy/activism as a coping orientation in the reintegration process, Thomas P. LeBel 11. Lessons learned about offender change: implications for criminal justice policy, Russ Immarigeon

  PublisherDOI

• “Getting Out:” A Summary of Qualitative Research on Desistance Across the Life Course

  2012-08-29 · 41 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• In it for the Long Haul: Gender Dynamics of Former Prisoner-family Relationships

  2012-08-16

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Social Support, Motivation, and the Process of Juvenile Reentry: An Exploratory Analysis of Desistance

  Journal of Offender Rehabilitation · 2012-04-01 · 70 citations

  article

  Many scholarly works and studies have explored the experience of reentry and desistance for adult offenders, but fewer studies have focused on these processes among juvenile offenders. Using qualitative case studies of juveniles released from secure confinement, this study explores the desistance process during juvenile reentry by examining how social support is used during the process. The authors propose that motivation, derived from both agentic resolve and reinforcement from social support networks, is necessary for successful desistance.

  PublisherDOI

• Informal Social Support Among Returning Young Offenders

  International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology · 2011-11-17 · 107 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding

  Informal social support has long been touted as a key to success for young offenders, but little empirical work has concretized these benefits. This article explores the dynamics of informal social support for returning young offenders (ages 14-24), particularly in the context of peers and family members. The authors use a metasynthesis methodology to examine 13 qualitative articles and dissertations published in the United States from 1998 through 2010. Analysis of these texts found two major themes related to informal support from peers and family members. Young offenders "walked a fine line" with their peers, who provided not only a sense of belonging and possibly a route to material assistance but also temptations and opportunities to reengage with criminal activity. Family members provided the supports and comforts of "the ties that bind" but with potentially unrealistic expectations and reenactment of old roles and negative dynamics. Through this metasynthesis, the authors forge an understanding of informal social support that complicates its presumed benefits for the reentry of young offenders.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Johnna Christian

  7 shared

• Bonita M. Veysey

  2 shared

• Elizabeth Panuccio

  Fairleigh Dickinson University

  2 shared

• Andrea Leverentz

  North Carolina State University

  2 shared

• Mercer L. Sullivan

  University of Central Oklahoma

  1 shared

• Álvaro Sanabria

  1 shared

• Laura S. Abrams

  University of California, Los Angeles

  1 shared

• Juan Guillermo Sánchez

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Social Work

  University of Chicago

  2008

• Master of Arts (MA), Social Work

  University of Chicago

  2008

• Bachelor of Arts (BA), Sociology

  University of California Los Angeles

  1998