Entries by Jeffrey Ian Ross

My Students Are Afraid, and They Have Good Reason

At my university and at many others across the U.S., students, faculty, and staff are deeply concerned about Trump’s plans to shut down the Department of Education (DOE). During the first few weeks of his second term, Trump signaled his intention to eliminate the DOE, which experts dismissed as unconstitutional and would harm a large […]

Reflections on the 30th Anniversary of CONTROLLING STATE CRIME

Three decades ago one of my first books, Controlling State Crime (1995) was published by Garland. This edited volume was, in part, a response to Gregg Barak’s Crimes of the Capitalist State (1991), an edited collection that brought together critical research on state crime. While Barak and his contributors effectively framed key debates on the […]

AI and the Dreaded College Essay

In the coming weeks, college students will begin writing their dreaded end-of-semester essays. But the landscape has changed. The rise of free, publicly available Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing tools like ChatGPT and ClaudeAI has transformed how many students do their work. Since these tools became widely accessible, reliance on them has skyrocketed, leaving educational institutions […]

Why Virginia’s Cooperation with ICE is a Misguided Policy & Practice

Following Indiana Governor Mike Braun’s lead, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently signed an executive order enabling state and local law enforcement agencies (and jails) to assist federal authorities, specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in detaining and extraditing undocumented immigrants. This policy is neither new nor effective—it has been tried with predictable consequences, including strained […]

The Never-Ending Demonization of the American Inner City

This past week, Trump proposed an executive order aimed at increasing sentences for violent crimes (especially gun-related), quality-of-life offenses (e.g., public urination),  the clearing of homeless encampments, and the removal of graffiti from national monuments in the District of Columbia. Notwithstanding whether Trump has the legal authority to impose these sanctions, over the past century, […]