On Friday, October 2, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate John H. Laub to the position of director of the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.John Laub is the Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also an Affiliate Faculty Member in the Department of Sociology at the University and a Visiting Scholar in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard. He has served as the President and as a fellow of the American Society of Criminology, which awarded him the Edwin H. Sutherland Award. He was also named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland for the 2006-2007 academic year. Dr. Laub was the Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology for five years and currently serves as an Associate Editor of Criminology. From 2002 to 2008, Dr. Laub was a member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science. He has published two award winning books and many research articles in the areas of crime and the life course, juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice, criminal victimization, and the history of criminology. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Albany.
When nominating Dr. Laub and nine others to their respective positions, President Obama said, "These men and women bring with them a wealth of experience and talent, and I am grateful for their willingness to commit themselves to public service. I look forward to working with them in these important roles in the coming months and years."
Laub will be joined by former John Jay faculty member Ellen Scrivner, whom Obama recently selected as Deputy Director.
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6 comments:
This is excellent for our field but bad for me. Finally, a real criminologist running NIJ. John is an excellent pick. My hopes are high that this will be the beginning of the much needed rebuilding of NIJ. I think John will advocate well in D.C. for criminologists. However, as I said, this is bad for me. John's my dissertation advisor so I'm losing him as an advisor. I'm so excited for John but sad for my loss. At the same time, what a priviledge it's been to work with the next NIJ director. I'm really curious to hear others' thoughts though. I'm obviously biased since he's my advisor. What are others thinking? Was this a good pick?
Laub is one of those people in the field who in addition to being a fantastic scholar has a reputation as being such a good person. I have met him several times in the past few years before I left my former evil instiution and he was one of the most down to earth, approachable people I have ever met.
I only hope he has the management capacity to pull something like this off. NIJ is a pretty big institution with lots of legacy, egos, etc. This really takes more than just a substantive person but a true manager, leader, and someone who can manage the political influences. Jeremy Travis had a reputation as being a strong leader in addition to a good scholar. Because some is a great scholar and kind person does not make them a good manager. I have no reason to think Laub can't do this well, I am merely raising the issue. Like Dr. Ha and Bux, I think this is a great step for NIJ. I hope this is a meaningful life-course transition for him.
Oh, by the way - - - Ellen Scrivner is also one of the nicest people in the world. She was my former direct supervisor when I was at the COPS Office. She is very experienced and I think a great choice for Laub. She has been around the block several times and then some. Ultimately one of COPS senior managers, Deputy Chief in Chicago for several years under Ramsey, Phd, etc, etc, and now at John Jay. I think she will bring the administrative experience and federal experience to the table that Laub likely does not have.
I agree with Bux & Scoob. I am thrilled. Not only is he among the most universally respected and highly regarded scholars in our field, he is (as Scooby said) a very approachable, down-to-Earth person. Plus, you all know how much I was gunning for a criminologist/social scientist to be named ONDCP Director. That didn't happen, but John's appointment as NIJ Director more than makes up for it! Now I am super excited for ASC -- I hope they organize a big "You Answer to Barack!" party for him! : )
I've not met Dr. Laub, but certainly have great respect for his scholarship. Scooby's point about good scholars not always equating with good managers is well-founded. I can't judge that either way in this case.
But I do like the message it sends (that we need a social scientist running NIJ). Perhaps any concerns on the management front can be allayed if he and Dr. Scrivner can work together effectively. She brings a very unique mix of federal experience, local experience, and applied research into the picture. If he can provide the vision and reorientation of NIJ approaches (i.e., can we put more frickin' science back into the NIJ Conference...remember when it used to be the NIJ Research and Eval Conference?) and she can help him negotiate the egos and sacred cows (of NIJ and DC), it could by a nice combination.
By the way, did anyone see the rather critical report assessing NIJ funding processes? Not quite as juicy as OJJDP's scandal, as it just found some irregularities and inconsistent standards in funding patterns (stuff we all knew occurred in terms of presumed favoritism).
Please have a look at Terror State with System and leave a comment... (to change the world)
thanX
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