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About
Criminologist, Scholar, & Consultant
Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D., is a criminologist at the University of Baltimore and co-founder of Convict Criminology. He brings an insider’s perspective to his work, shaped by his experience as a former courier, taxi driver, corrections worker, and union shop steward. This approach has also benefited from numerous visits to correctional facilities across North America, Europe, and South America, and firsthand research on street culture, and graffiti and street art internationally. Ross has published 30+ books and shares his expertise on corrections, policing, political crime, street culture, and graffiti and street art through scholarship, public writing, speaking, media commentary, and consulting.
Trash Collectors
/by Jeffrey Ian RossDuring the late 1970s, I got my start driving cab for Beck Taxi in Toronto. Their business at the time was disproportionately located in the east end, above and below the Danforth. We got calls from the projects in Regent Park and the low-income housing at Main and Gerrard, but most business came from working-class […]
Conferences Shaping Graffiti and Street Art Scholarship
/by Jeffrey Ian RossMany academic organizations hold annual conferences where participants present papers to colleagues working in the same field. But no learned society that specializes in the scholarly area of graffiti and street art studies, that could hold annual meetings, exists. Although selected colleges and universities have held one-off conferences on this subject, over the past few decades […]
Eleven Films I use in my Criminology and Criminal Justice Classes
/by Jeffrey Ian RossAlthough textbooks, journal articles, and lectures are important, movies are one of the most effective teaching tools available to criminology and criminal justice instructors. They can communicate ideas, emotions, institutional realities, and ethical dilemmas in ways that the written word often struggles with. Throughout my teaching career, I have selectively incorporated narrative films into my […]