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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.
Softening the brutalism of big downtown hotels and areas where they are located
/by Jeffrey Ian RossAlmost every big North American city has a part of their downtown where tall, frequently imposing, and well-known brand name hotels are located. Sometimes these structures are built beside each other or sprinkled among the equally massive office towers, apartments, and condos. Occasionally they are integrated into a central business district where a variety of […]
Train station bars and social connections
/by Jeffrey Ian RossIn addition to ticket counters, bag storage rooms, waiting areas, restrooms, newsstand stores, and platforms, almost every big city train station in the United States has one or more bars. With big screen televisions playing live sports games, the murmur of peoples conversation, the occasional sound of glasses clinking, and ranging in size and shabbiness, […]
American elections, political parties, and leaders in critical times
/by Jeffrey Ian RossThis week American voters will participate in a critical midterm election. If the pollsters and pundits are correct, the Democratic Party is going to lose seats both in the Senate and in Congress. Meanwhile many of the states that were led by Democratic and moderate Republican legislatures and Governors are going to flip to Republicans, […]