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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. His approach is shaped by nearly a decade of work before entering academia, as a courier, cab driver, corrections worker, and union shop steward. It is further grounded in three decades of visiting correctional facilities across North America, Europe, and South America, researching the conditions inside them, and having conversations with convicts and correctional officers and administrators. It also draws on interviews with formerly incarcerated people outside those facilities, and on ethnographic fieldwork on street culture and on graffiti and street art internationally. Ross has published more than thirty 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.
Parking as a Microcosm of Broader Urban Struggles
/by Jeffrey Ian RossParking, often treated as a mundane logistical concern, is an important site of contestation in urban life. At its core, it reflects the struggle over public space in cities, where demand routinely exceeds supply. Although debates about cars usually focus on externalities like emissions or their dominance over other modes of urban mobility, vehicles need […]
Rethinking the Subway Sandwich Guy Incident
/by Jeffrey Ian RossA little over two weeks ago, Sean Charles Dunn, a 37-year-old paralegal, who has since been fired from the United States Department of Justice, hurled a Subway sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. The video of the incident spread quickly, and media coverage followed a predictable script: […]
Why Paying Attention to the Streets Can Change How You See the City
/by Jeffrey Ian RossMost of us move through cities on autopilot. We commute, run errands, scroll our phones, and mentally prepare for the next task. It’s functional. But in the process, we miss more than the visual landscape of the city. We miss its soul. The streets aren’t just spaces we pass through. They are living classrooms, stages, […]