Comments on The General Blog of Crime: You Do What?

On Velma's latter question, I've experienced plent...

2008-01-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

On Velma's latter question, I've experienced plenty of professional stigma from other social scientists. When on the market, in one instance I was told (though a reasonably reliable source, but still second hand) that I know I was passed over for a sociology PhD. The reason? They thought the soc PhD would have a better likelihood of tenure success. This was at a place with far lighter standards than my current institution.

A lot of the confusion by other disciplines seems to have as much to do with confusion over how/what we teach our students. Despite being one floor down in the same building, several Soc faculty at my current employing institituion seem to think we teach them some combination of CSI, shooting, and handcuffing 101. The perception of CJ as "soft" is based not only on applied research but on the belief we offer a 4 year technical degree.

To be sure, there are places that do the latter, but most CJ programs are routinely criticized by out-going graduates for not teaching enough "hands on." I suspect the most "hands on" most of our programs get is some aspects of law curriculum and perhaps policy/admin courses.

I actually don't get flack from random people I meet at the kid's school, etc.

I just get into my research area and hope that peo...

2008-01-09T04:32:00.000-05:00

I just get into my research area and hope that people have some sort of experience or familiarity with *any* type of computer crime. My least favorite thing is when they figure that my professional life is cake because I only teach a couple/few days a week. So then I have to go on and on about research/service activities....and I still don't think they buy what I'm saying :)

I hardly ever tell people what I do (unless they r...

2008-01-08T13:07:00.000-05:00

I hardly ever tell people what I do (unless they really probe) because I get tired of the same old responses. If you study crime you must want to be in the FBI or a CSI or some other popular acronym.

I remember the conversation I had with someone (don't remember who):

"You're a professor?!?"

P: "Yes, an assistant professor."

"OOOOHHHH...I knew you weren't a PROFESSOR."

There are so many stereotypes associated with being a professor or being interested in crime, and I don't think I really fall into any of them (maybe none of us do - which is why we are so fun to be around!)

And you can imagine the conversations I get into when I first explain that I am a criminologist (or criminal justician) and then talk about how I study cyberbullying. "You study what?!?"

I think that sometimes it is more than just a misu...

2008-01-08T10:41:00.000-05:00

I think that sometimes it is more than just a misunderstanding of what we do. I guess I am just suprised that people seem to assume that 'nice' people (white, upper-class women) are less likely to study crime. Would people have the same reaction if I mentioned that I am a sociologist who considers the role of culture in institutions?

As an analogy, I once heard someone say that Marcia Cross must be a nasty person (at least in part) because she always plays crazy people (I miss Melrose Place).

I have experienced both of these reactions from pe...

2008-01-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

I have experienced both of these reactions from people when I tell them that I study crime/am a criminologist/have a Ph.D. in criminal justice. It's either:

"Really? Huh. I wouldn't have guessed. How'd you get interested in that?"

-or-

"So, you wanna be a cop?" This one really baffles me. While I have tremendous respect for police officers (in fact, I have never completely relinquished my dream of becoming one)....if I wanted to be a police officer, I surely wouldn't have spent a decade in grad school! I think the NY Kid is right -- unless you say that you have a degree in "chemistry" or "biology" or "psychology," I don't know that people really understand what it is we do.

We just need more people to read this blog -- then they'll understand! : )

I find most often that I am not necessarily stigma...

2008-01-07T10:17:00.000-05:00

I find most often that I am not necessarily stigmatized, but that people tend to assume that I work directly with the police. It seems there is relatively little understanding of what people do with a Ph.D. in Criminology.