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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.
Misapplying appropriation, co-optation, commodification & fetishization
/by Jeffrey Ian RossThe recent social media discussion over the work and legacy of Frida Kahlo, while somewhat interesting and entertaining, is in many respects disappointing. Some criticism argues that, because Kahlo came from a privileged upper class family, was comparatively light-skinned, and was not purely indigenous, that she had minimal right to use the iconography, imagery, and […]
The Unravelling of American Democracy?
/by Jeffrey Ian RossOn the 246th anniversary of the signing the Declaration of Independence it may be helpful to reflect on an alarming trend. During the presidency of Donald Trump numerous anti-democratic policies, practices, laws, and events in American society occurred. This happened not just at the federal level, but at the state level too. Despite the election […]
The repeal of Roe v Wade highlights the need to change the way we choose Supreme Court justices and their terms of service
/by Jeffrey Ian RossThe American justice system is imperfect. That’s why it’s constantly being reformed. Factor in the necessity to make decisions partially based on empirical evidence and consulting experts, but more importantly competing ideological and political forces, then you realize why the process is slow. Over time there is change. Not wholesale change, and not always in […]