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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.
Good Food, Great Wine, and Unforgettable Conversations: A Tribute to Vincenzo Ruggiero (1951–2024)
/by Jeffrey Ian Ross(Reprinted from the newsletter of the American Society of Criminology, Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice, 33(1), pp. 10-13, published June 3, 2025) It is an honor to pay tribute to Vincenzo Ruggiero, a highly respected professor and criminologist at Middlesex University, who passed away earlier this year. Not only was Vincenzo a colleague, […]
Japanese Rice, Curiosity, & Expertise
/by Jeffrey Ian RossGrowing up, whenever rice was prepared and served in our household, you could almost guarantee it would be Uncle Ben’s Converted rice; white, tasteless, quick, and dependable. When I moved out and began cooking for myself, I started wandering into health food stores. That’s when I discovered a whole world beyond Uncle Ben’s: basmati, brown […]
Why I Use the Word “Corrections” (Even Though It Makes Me Uneasy)
/by Jeffrey Ian RossAlthough corrections is one of my primary scholarly research areas, I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the term. And yet, I still use it. So, what do most scholars, practitioners, and journalists mean when they use corrections? Broadly speaking, the term refers to the institutions/facilities (i.e., prisons, jails, detention centers), policies, practices, programs, laws, and […]