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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.
Are most academic departments, schools, and colleges of Criminology or Criminal Justice cop shops?
/by Jeffrey Ian RossMany academic departments (schools and colleges) of Criminology and Criminal Justice, at least in the United States, are often disparagingly called “cop shops.” What does this mean? This label is often affixed to academic units that are disproportionately staffed by instructors and professors who are former criminal justice practitioners (hereafter, practitioners), and there is a […]
How do democracies slip into authoritarianism?
/by Jeffrey Ian RossThe prospect of a second Trump term, the current composition of the supreme court, and the rise of the MAGA movement, has prompted not just elected and stalwart democrats and political commentators, but former leaders and members of the Republican Party to suggest that the United States risks the possibility of becoming an authoritarian state. […]
Gas stations and random acts of urban incivility
/by Jeffrey Ian RossAs long as people drive gas powered cars, they are going to need a steady supply of this fuel, and most individuals purchase this at gasoline stations. Recently the empty sign light on my car’s dashboard instrument panel went off, and after close to 24 hours or so, I finally decided to buy gas. But […]