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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.
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 […]
Why do the Hudson’s Bay Blanket Stripes Travel So Well?
/by Jeffrey Ian RossAlmost a half-century ago, one of the first purchases I made in preparation for leaving my parents’ house was a Hudson’s Bay Company wool point blanket. I walked into the HBC department store at suburban Fairview Mall, found the item with its iconic wide green, red, yellow, and indigo horizontal stripes on a white background, […]
Two Sundays In a Row
/by Jeffrey Ian RossOn my first visit, I brought my Japanese knives (the short deba and the long yanagiba), packed away in my knife case. Then, standing at the trunk of my car, parked across the street from the restaurant, I decided to leave them in the trunk. I had been studying and cooking Washoku (traditional Japanese food) […]