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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.
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Forget tweaks to our political system, it’s time to implement proportional representation
/by Jeffrey Ian RossIf the past four years have taught us anything, it’s that there are major problems with our political system. I could list a dozen of them off the top of my head, but the one that sticks out is our winner take all electoral system. In theory, in this type of political contest all a […]
If you’re thinking about sitting this election out, it’s your last chance to reconsider
/by Jeffrey Ian RossWith a few days left until the election our country is facing, I thought I’d say a few things. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I received our ballots via mail, we selected our preferred candidates, and then we walked over to the drop box, not far from where we live, and deposited […]
Enabling new ways of using urban pubic space during the COVID-19 pandemic
/by Jeffrey Ian RossShortly after the spring COVID-19 lockdown, my neighborhood in Washington DC resembled a ghost town. Bars, restaurants, and other retail stores started shutting down, while businesses, government offices, public libraries, schools, and parks were temporarily closed. At night it was eerie. The silence was punctuated by occasional sounds of ambulances or fire truck sirens taking […]