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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.
Tracing the History of Documenting and Sharing Images of Graffiti & Street Art
/by Jeffrey Ian RossThe documentation and dissemination of images of contemporary graffiti and street art have been integral to its existence and development. Meanwhile, how people have shared images of this material has evolved. Much of this shift parallels advances in photographic, computer, digital, and web-based technology and the culture’s response to these developments. While practitioners and audiences […]
No Soul in the New Hotel?
/by Jeffrey Ian RossI’ve stayed in everything from budget hostels to luxury hotels—and, most recently, so-called smart hotels. With this last type of accommodation most interactions with the hotel and the room are either automated, and/or customers can do this through their smartphone or computer. Guests are usually given a code to check in and out and to […]
Seven Popular Myths About Contemporary Street Culture
/by Jeffrey Ian RossStreet culture has received considerable attention in the popular press, on social media, and increasingly in scholarly circles. One of the things where less attention is spent is on a reasonably acceptable definition. In short, Street Culture can be defined as “the beliefs, dispositions, ideologies, informal rules, practices, styles, symbols, and values associated with, adopted […]