The Criminology Academy

Justin Pickett is a professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany, SUNY. He received his PhD in Criminology from Florida State University in 2011 and received the American Society of Criminology's Cavan Young Scholar Award in 2015. His research interests include public opinion, survey research methods, theories of punishment, and police?community relations. 

Special topics highlighted in this episode include criminological research and public opinion and policing and diversity

Richard Wright retired from the University of Missouri-St. Louis? Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2014, having spent 30 very happy years there. He then joined the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University as chair, before retiring again in 2021. Wright has published widely in the area of offending decision making, with particular focus on urban street criminals.

Richard speaks to us about his journey into criminology, his work on active offender research, and his thoughts on the field.

In this episode we speak with Dr. Brae Young. Brae is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Texas Christian University. Her research largely focuses on family and support among offending populations as well as broader issues within the juvenile justice system. Her recent work has appeared in Justice Quarterly, Journal of Developmental and Life Course Criminology, and Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.

We spoke to Brae about her work surrounding adolescents who have been incarcerated. Specifically we discuss the benefits of these teens getting visits and what may or may not prevent their loved ones from visiting them. Our discussion then moves to being a teen parent while incarcerated and the challenges that brings. 

In this episode we talk with Nathaniel Schutten a doctoral candidate in the School of Criminal Justice at SUNY Albany. Nathaniel talks to us about his work regarding attitudes towards gun ownership in the United States as well the intersection of gun ownership and racism. 

You can find Nathaniel on X @NateSchutten. 

Prepare for an enlightening journey through episode 93 of the Criminology Academy podcast. Explore the dark side of the internet with cybercrime expert Dr. Eden Kamar, who delves into the disturbing trend of child online grooming. Through a detailed discussion about her groundbreaking research and studies, we also explore the role of parental guardianship in mitigating online grooming, the techniques employed by predators, and protective measures for children.

Unveil the innovative use of chatbots and artificial intelligence for data collection and analysis of online sexual grooming techniques, highlighting the potential in safeguarding children and prosecuting offenders. Learn about the alarming findings, including the observed trend of more sexually knowledgeable children being specifically targeted for offline contact. Reflect on the importance of understanding the grooming process's non-linear nature, which can often be abrupt and direct.

Dig deeper as the conversation explores the issue of webcam exploitation, particularly by online groomers. Recognize the deception within certain platforms that enable groomers to manipulate the victims' cameras without their awareness primarily through 'Whereby' as suggested by Dr. Kamar's study. Raise pressing questions on the safety design of such platforms and the role of software companies in securing user safety.

Tune into this insightful conversation and empower yourself with knowledge against these cyber threats.

Join hosts Jose Sanchez and Jenn Tostlebe as they engage in a compelling conversation with Professor Jerry Ratcliffe, a seasoned professional in the field of criminal justice. They dive into the complexities of policing resources, the challenges of policy-making,  and the importance of evidence-based policing. Ratcliffe's rich experiences and deep insight derived from his career with London's Metropolitan Police and academic tenure at the Temple University set the backdrop for an enlightening discussion.

Stephanie Bonnes is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Assistant Dean of the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven. Her scholarship broadly focuses on victimization at the intersections of gender, inequality, identity, and organizations.

We speak to Stephanie about harassment and sexual assault within the military. 

Episode Note: Around minute 14, Stephanie wanted to clarify she meant that individual victims are helped, however,  no one is helping much to change the culture. Something she expands on throughout the episode. 

Get Stephanie's book "Hardship Duty" with 30% off (use the code) here:

David Weisburd is Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University and the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current research interests are focused on the criminology of place, policing, and research methods. He has received several awards such as the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, the American Society of Criminology?s Sutherland Award, the (ASC) August Vollmer Award, and the Israel Prize, among many others.

We discuss the origins of the criminology of place and some of David's work on crime concentrating in certain micro geographic locations. 

Richard Rosenfeld is the Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is a Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Criminology. We talk to Rick about his beginning as a criminologist. Then we discuss some of Rick's contributions to the field surrounding his work on crime forecasting. Finally, Rick gives us his thoughts on the field. 

Robert Agnew is Professor of Sociology, Emeritus at Emory University. We talk to Robert about his beginnings in sociology and criminology. We also get into Robert's General Strain Theory and it's development over time. Finally, Robert gives us his thoughts on the field of criminology and where he hopes it will go in the future. 

Alix Winter is the Chief Data Scientist for the Racial Profiling and Biased-Based Policing Investigations Unit at New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board. She is also an Affiliated Research Scholar at Columbia University's Incite.

We discuss how court actors justify bail decisions and the outcomes of these decisions. 

For this episode we don't have a guest. We just spend time talking about the timeline of the academic job market, some initial interviews dos and don'ts, and then we get into our experiences doing campus visit interviews. They are exhausting but critical to landing a job. 

This week we spoke with Jennifer O'Neill who is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Indiana University. We talk about symbolic interactionism, role identities, and delinquency. 

Michael Gottfredson is Chancellor?s Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, Sociology, and Law at the University of California, Irvine. From 2012 to 2014, he was President of the University of Oregon. He has written about the causes of crime, delinquency, and victimization, and about decision making in the criminal justice process. His work is focused on the implications of general theory about crime for research design and public policies and crime. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and the Western Society of Criminology.

This week we speak with Pamela Buckley who is an associate research professor in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the Principal Investigator of the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development (Blueprints), a globally- recognized registry of experimentally proven interventions promoting rigorous scientific standards for certification. We talk to Pam about evidence-based programming, the Blueprints registry, and programs tailored to ethnoracial minorities. 

You can find Blueprints on X @Blueprints4HYD or https://www.blueprintsprograms.org/

This week we spoke with Ilana Friedman (Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky's School of Law) and Amber Krushas (Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas' Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice). They talk about their experiences going through their own PhD programs and give advice to students at the beginning, middle, and end of their programs! 

You can find Ilana and Amber on X @ifriedman01 and @amber_krusahs

This week we spoke with Ben Crewe who is a professor of penology and criminal justice at the University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology. We talk about what prisons are like in England, Wales, and Norway. The discussion centers around the idea of Nordic exceptionalism when it comes to imprisonment and whether it's just a myth. 

Ben has published in journals such as Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, and Punishment & Society. You can find on X @crewebencrewe.

This week we spoke with Mateus Santos (Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida), Chae Jaynes (Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida) and Danielle Thomas (Doctoral student in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida) about the challenges of finding a job with a criminal record and what can be done to overcome these challenges. We discuss their recent paper published in Criminology titled "How to overcome the cost of a criminal record for getting hired".

You can find Chae, Mateus, and Danielle on X (formerly Twitter) @ChaeJaynes, @MatSantos7, and @justifyjusticee.

This week we spoke with Volkan Topalli who is a professor of criminology at Georgia State University and co-editor of the journal Criminology. We talked to Volkan about his active offender approach to research going back to where it really gained popularity: the University of St. Louis-Missouri. 

Volkan has published in journals such as Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and Criminal Justice and Behavior. You can find Volkan on Twitter/X @VolkanTopalli. 

This week we talked to Selena Munoz-Jones who is a doctoral student in the sociology department at the University of Colorado Boulder. We set the table by talking about the housing issue in the United States and then we discuss a piece that Selena wrote about Public Housing Authorities. 

You can find Selena on Twitter (or X, we guess?) @SMunozJones

This week we (or really, just Jose) spoke with Charles Lanfear who is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminology in the University of Cambridge. We open the discussion with theory. Broken windows, social disorganization, and collective efficacy. Then we move into violence within communities and discuss a paper written by Charles. We close out with a discussion on reproducibility and open science. 

Charles has been published in journals such as JAMA Network Open, Criminology, and Annual Review of Criminology. You can follow Charles on Twitter @cclanfear or visit his website https://clanfear.github.io/

This week we spoke with Erin Tinney, a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. We start with a general discussion on labeling theory, then we move into talking about stigma and adolescent arrests. Finally, Erin talks to us about her recent paper on the stigma associated with adolescent arrest. 

You can find Erin on Twitter @Tinney_Erin. She has been published in Criminology. 

This week we speak with Sandra Bucerius is a professor in the sociology department at the University of Alberta. We kick off the discussion by talking about incarceration in Canada and compare it a little to incarceration in the United States. We also discuss subcultures and radicalization. Finally, we bring it all together by discussing a paper co-authored by Sandra discussing radicalization within prisons in Canada. 

Sandra has been published in journals such as Journal of Drug Issues, Criminology, and City and Community

This week we talk with Janet Lauritsen who is Curators' Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri -St. Louis. We walk through the journey to her becoming a criminologist and studying victimization. We then discuss a piece she wrote on victimization for the Annual Review of Criminology. Finally, Janet gives us her thoughts on the field of criminology. 

Janet has been published in journals such as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Social Forces. 

Elephants, Tigers, and Penguins! We love them and care about them. Therefore, this week we took a dive into the world of illegal trafficking that impacts both flora (plants) and fauna (animals) by speaking with William Moreto, a professor criminal justice at the University of Central Florida. We ask him all sorts of questions related broadly to wildlife crime. We've all heard of money laundering, but what about fish laundering? Then we discuss two papers co-authored by Will on the topics of (1) the convergence between wildlife trafficking and organized crime and (2) rangers' perspectives of policing protected areas. Illegal wildlife trafficking (for example, ivory, penguin scales, caviar, and cacti) is either the third or fifth largest black market in the world (depending on the metric being used). As such, wildlife crime is a serious concern that we should all learn more about! 

William Moreto has been published in Justice Quarterly, The British Journal of Criminology, Conservation Criminology, and Deviant Behavior, among other journals. You can find him on "the twitter" @MoreToPhD.

This week we spoke with C. Jordan Howell, a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida. We discuss what cybercrime and cybersecurity is. Then we discuss a serious of projects that Jordan has worked on exploring the dark web and ransomware. Don't worry, Jose's 100s of dollars are safe! And no, Jenn didn't hack into Jose's accounts and buy pizza... although, that's not a bad idea.

C. Jordan Howell has been published in Crime & Delinquency, The British Journal of Criminology, and Deviant Behavior. You can find him on Twitter @Dr_Cybercrime and see his research lab on sarasotacyber.com

This week we spoke with Beverly Kingston, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder and the director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. We asked Beverly about school violence generally. How it has changed over time and how we typically respond to school shootings. We then discuss a paper Beverly co-authored about school readiness to implement a program. Finally, we talk about the impacts some responses like school resource officers and lockdown drills can have on children. 

Beverly has been published in journals such as Youth & Society, American Journal of Public Health, and Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.

This weeks we speak with Thomas Abt, a research professor at the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. We discuss several key issues: (1) what is community violence? (2) how do we go about addressing community violence? and (3) how do we disseminate research in a way that non-academics can understand?  

Thomas is the founding director of the Violence Research Center. You can find him on Twitter @Abt_Thomas.

Please remember to rate and review!!  

This week we talk with Justin Nix, a professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Justin talks to us about: what are some of the statistics on police use of deadly force? what do we currently know and don't know about use of force? where should policing research on use of force go in the future? and finally, we discuss police legitimacy. 

Justin has published in Criminology & Public Policy, Justice Quarterly, and Criminology. You can find Justin on Twitter @JNixy.

This week we speak with Simon Kolbeck, a doctoral candidate at The Ohio State University's Department of Sociology. Simon talks to us about the impacts that incarceration can have on recidivism, what role employment plays, and how race and ethnicity matter. We discuss a paper by Simon in which he studied the role of work history and race in the employment-recidivism relationship. 

Simon has been published in places like Criminology and the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 

This week we spoke with Claire Lee who is a professor at UMass Lowell's School of Criminology and Justice Studies. Claire talked to us about what cybercrime and cyber security entail. We also discuss a paper she wrote about zoom bombings during COVID-19. 

This week we talked to Brook Kearley, a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore in the School of Social Work. Brook talks to us about experimental designs in criminology. We also discuss a paper in which she evaluated a drug court. 

This week we have three guests, Carlena Orosco, a professor in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics at Cal State LA, Luke Alward, a professor of Criminal Justice at Boise State University, and Wes Smith, who does research and development for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They are all recent PhDs who share insights and advice on writing the dissertation and then defending it. They also let us know what they did after they defended to celebrate their huge accomplishment. 

Writing the Dissertation: 00:00:00

Defending the Dissertation: 00:35:51

The Aftermath: 00:53:42

This week we speak with Wayne Osgood, a professor emeritus at Penn State University's Department of Sociology and Criminology. Wayne walks us through his early career and how he became a criminologist. Then we talk about one of his signature pieces, a 1996 publication in American Sociological Review, "Routine Activities and Individual Deviant Behavior." Finally, Wayne gives us his thoughts on the field and where we should go moving forward. It was an absolute pleasure to speak with Wayne Osgood. 

Wayne has been published in journals such as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Journal of Research on Adolescence. 

Join us for this episode as we review our exciting Fall22 slate of episodes and preview our equally as exciting Spring 23 episodes. We will have a fun time discussing what we've recorded and were we plan on going in the future. We talk about GIFs and the ASC conference. We also drop some updates on our lives! It's a good time as we semi-wing it (again) this time! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @TheCrimAcademy. Also visit our website The Crim Academy Website. Please rate and review on iTunes and where you can!!!

This week we speak with Fiona Chan who is a professor at Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Criminal Justice. We begin the conversation talking about Fiona's interesting background. Then we move into Routine Activity Theory, which is one of Jose's favorites, and then about white-collar and corporate crime. We discuss a paper Fiona wrote about corporate crime perpetrated by people in power. We conclude the discussion with a brief chat about interdisciplinary work. 

Fiona has been published in journals such as Criminology, Crime, Law, and Social Change, and Trends in Organized Crime.

NOTE: Jenn was on the academic job market during the recording of this episode. We knew there was a small but realistic chance she would not be available for a recording. So we recruited fellow CU Buff and Sociology PhD student Annabel Fay https://www.colorado.edu/sociology/annabel-fay

This week we spoke with Victoria Piehowski (pie-house-key), a doctoral candidate in the Sociology department at the University of Minnesota. Victoria talks to her about her work surrounding probation and the impact it can have on those put on probation. She gives us some background information on alcohol and drug laws in the United States and especially policies like the war on drugs and the recent federal pardons for marijuana offenses. Then we discuss how probation is used as a coercion tactic to force people into sobriety. 

Victoria's work has been published in Punishment & Society, Social & Legal Studies, and Law & Social Inquiry. You can find Victoria on Twitter @VPiehowski and https://www.victoriapiehowski.com/

This week we talk with Bianca Bersani, a professor at the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. We ask her about her academic family tree and how it influenced her work. We also ask whether turning points can actually be negative and not just good things that happen to us. Bianca walks us through a paper she co-authored looking at the impact of arrest during early adolescence. Finally, we talk about one of her emerging areas of interest: emerging adult justice. 

You can find Bianca on Twitter @bebersani. She has been published in journals such as Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Annual Review of Criminology, and Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 

This week we talk with RV Gundur who is a criminologist based out of Australia. We talk to him about his new book "Trying to Make It: The Enterprises, Gangs, and People of the American Drug Trade". We begin the discussion with broader set-up questions and then spend the rest of the interview just talking about the book. Of course we couldn't shove the whole book into a 1 hour episode but we tried to cover major points. RV discusses how he weaved his personal life into the book which makes for a captivating read. 

RV has published in journals such as Deviant Behavior, Trends in Organized Crime, and Urban Affairs Review. You can follow RV on Twitter @gr4d or https://ravejudgerun.com/

This week we talk to Niloofar Ramezani, a professor at George Mason University's Department of Statistics, and Faye Taxman, a professor at George Mason University's School of Policy and Government and director of the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence! (ACE!). They talk to us about what contributes to jail populations and the effects that jail stays can have on people's mental and behavioral health. 

You can find Faye on Twitter at @FayeTaxman. 

Additional resources:

https://www.gmuace.org/

https://www.jcoinctc.org/

This week we talk with Sadé Lindsay, a Research Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at Cornell University and a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow of the National Institute of Justice, about her work on people leaving prisons and trying to find employment. We discuss some of the credentials and work people do while in prison and how they may or may not leverage these when back in the community trying to find a job. We also discuss turning your dissertation into a publication. 

Sadé has been published in journals such as Criminology and Social Problems. You can find her on Twitter @_SadeLindsay. 

This week we talk with John Laub, professor emeritus in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. We begin by getting into John's origin story and how his career as a decorated scholar came to be. We also discuss the book John and Rob Sampson (Ep. 38) "Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives". The book was a true undertaking as they tracked down people who had been involved in a study decades prior. John also discusses the changes that were made to the Age-graded Theory of Informal Social Control. Finally, John gives us his thoughts on the state of the field and were he would like to see it go. 

John Laub has been published in journals such as Criminology, Crime and Justice, and Law and Society Review.

This week we have an exciting episode! Good friends of TCA and real life besties, Chantal Fahmy, a professor at University of Texas-San Antonio's Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, and Meghan Mitchell, a professor at the University of North Dakota's Department of Criminal Justice, talk to Jenn and Jose about their work on prison reentry and health. Specifically, we discuss why using one question to study people's health may not be enough. They also discuss healthcare while incarcerated and what some of the factors for success or unsuccessful reentry might be. Finally, we close the episode with a chat on what it's like to publish with your best friend. 

You can find Chantal Fahmy on Twitter @ChantalFahmy. She has been published in journals such as Social Science & Medicine, Crime & Delinquency, and Journal of Criminal Justice. 

You can find Meghan Mitchell on Twitter @meghanmmitchell. She has been published in journals such as Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Crime and Justice, and Journal of Experimental Criminology. 

A few weeks ago we talked about navigating the academic job market. However, we know that this career path is not what everyone who is getting a PhD wants to do. This week we speak with Cherrell Green, Raven Simonds, and Zach Drake about navigating the job market for non-academic jobs. Cherrell works for Justice System Partners, Raven for the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, and Zach for Nuspire. Our guests dropped a ton of knowledge at TCA. From discussion their potential paths with advisors, to setting up documentation and applications, to the work itself. 

This week we're Back in Black! As we speak with Brian Johnson, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Maryland, about how facial characteristics may or may not help people convicted of doing Dirty Deeds (possibly Done Dirt Cheap)! He answers questions about whether or not judges are Givin the Dog a Bone if they rank higher in things like attractiveness. 

Brian has been published in journals like Criminology, American Sociological Review, and Crime and Justice.

Join us for this short-and-sweet episode as we review our exciting Summer 22 slate of episodes and preview our equally as exciting Fall 22 episodes. We will have a fun time discussing what we've recorded and were we plan on going in the future. It's a good time as we semi-wing it (again) this time! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @TheCrimAcademy. Also visit our website The Crim Academy Website. Please rate and review on iTunes and where you can!!!

We spoke with Jessica Mongilio, a doctoral candidate at Penn State's Department of Sociology and Criminology. Jessica talks to us about biopsychosocial criminology, we then move into a conversation about head injuries and their correlation to crime. 

Jessica's work has been published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. You can find her on Twitter @JMongilio.

*NOTE* We recorded this episode prior to the ASC elections. Val is now president elect of ASC. 

In this episode Jenn and Jose talk to Val Jenness who is a professor of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine. We discuss a topic that has gained a lot of attention lately. It is also a sensitive topic. Val talks to us about the experiences of transgender people, specifically, trans women, in carceral settings. We discuss their experiences generally and sexual assault specifically. Val also talks to us about some of her projects in this area, especially the new SB 132 in California. 

Welcome to episode 50!! This is a special one, not only for being our 50th but also because we discuss the job market with some amazing guests!

Thad, Sadaf, and Alondra were gracious enough to talks to us about their experiences in the job market. Their insight, words of encouragement, and energy made this a great episode. We walk from the very beginning of deciding where to apply to, getting materials together, and all the way to negotiation and accepting an offer.