An illuminating post on Crooked Timber on the Gates arrest, discretion, and the origins of the disorderly conduct charge. I am struck by the police report, given that it details a ridiculous action on the part of the officer and an example of discretion gone wrong. If accurate, the officer induced Gates to follow him [...]
Archive for the ‘crime’ Category
Gates Arrest
Posted in crime, race on July 21, 2009 | 28 Comments »
where an instructor admits lack of knowledge (and then rationalizes it)
Posted in crime, prison reentry, research, sociology, teaching, undergrads on May 23, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I was reading an article on celibacy and the priesthood the other day and came across this:
And while abstinence does not inevitably lead to child molestation, critics are quick to draw a link between priestly celibacy and recent pedophilia scandals.
My first thought… “Wait a minute, does celibacy often lead to child molestation?” This is no [...]
Police Chiefs – 1, Academic Criminologists – 0
Posted in crime on January 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
For all those times that academics have undermined your successes by arguing that falling crime rates are due to a better economy or falling poverty rates rather than police practices, the police chiefs are picking themselves off the mat. Case in point, Chief Bratton comes charging back with a body blow.
I expect the criminologists to [...]
More than the 8th best job…
Posted in crime, mentors on January 11, 2009 | 2 Comments »
A few months back, I witnessed the bloodiest fight I’ve ever seen.* I’ve seen a few fights before but they were mostly of the junior high, i’ll meet you in the woods after school where we can play-enact a fight that will be broken up by Mr. Spitler (how’s that for a junior high school [...]
Lloyd Ohlin
Posted in crime on January 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I hadn’t heard until today but Lloyd Ohlin passed away on Dec. 6th. I’m an admirer of his work and often cite Delinquency and Opportunity (with Richard Cloward) but didn’t know much about his life. The NYT obit (and Boston Globe) is an interesting read — I wonder how many criminologists today can report doing [...]
Year-End Criminal Justice Numbers
Posted in crime, prison reentry on December 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Bureau of Justice Statistics released its report on prisoners, probationers, and parolees in 2007 last week. Some highlights:
7.3 million men and women were under correctional supervision in 2007
Of these, 70% were supervised in the community and 30% (2.3 million) were held in correctional facilities
Since 1999, about 3% of the population has been under correctional [...]
OJ, Revisited
Posted in crime on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
At first, I thought OJ’s sentence seemed long for a kinda sorta first-time offender. Upon doing a little research, it isn’t overly long.
Networking and Minority Scholars
Posted in conferences, crime, race on August 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
There is an interesting discussion unfolding on The General Blog of Crime regarding minority scholars. The American Society of Criminology lists a directory of minority scholars on its main web page. The list, *I think*, is meant to recognize the achievements of minority scholars, allow media to easily find minority scholars to comment on crime [...]
NIU: What to say to students?
Posted in crime, teaching on February 15, 2008 | 5 Comments »
My students had an exam today. Much of the exam covered sociological explanations of crime and a lot of research on imprisonment. Given that I was in the position of ‘expert,’ it seemed odd not to say something about the tragic events at Northern Illinois University yesterday. So, what did I say?
Not much, to be honest. [...]
