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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. He brings an insider’s perspective to his work, shaped by his experience as a former courier, taxi driver, corrections worker, and union shop steward. This approach has also benefited from numerous visits to correctional facilities across North America, Europe, and South America, and firsthand research on street culture, and graffiti and street art internationally. Ross has published 30+ 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.
Lights, Camera, Corrections
/by Jeffrey Ian RossMany films have been made about convicts, prisons, or set in American correctional facilities. On the one hand you have documentaries that provide a history of a particular correctional facility, a longstanding challenge, an incident or series of incidents (like a riot), the death penalty, and some of the solutions that have been attempted. On […]
Taking stock of the scholarly study of graffiti and street art
/by Jeffrey Ian RossThe streets, utility poles, and back alleys of large urban centers in most big cities are epicenters for all manner of graffiti and street art. Predictably this activity engenders lots of responses. Notwithstanding the longstanding desire by property owners, ghost buffers, and moral entrepreneurs to deter this activity and remove this work from the surfaces […]
In Praise of Back Alley Mechanics
/by Jeffrey Ian RossIn bustling urban environments various businesses exist, each selecting the locations where to operate based on factors like rent, profitability, and access to customers, suppliers, workers etc.. In addition to the more well-known and visible commercial entities (such as retail establishments), numerous service and manufacturing businesses operate in less conspicuous areas—industrial/office parks, suburbs, on the […]