Announcement

The preliminary program for ASC -St. Louis has been posted. Look for a nice write up of things to do in the STL in the next Criminologist.

The Green

I just saw this on the ASC website ...Discuss.


Results from the 2007-2008
Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology
and Criminal Justice Survey

Nine month 2007-2008 salaries of faculty in criminology/criminal justice doctoral programs:

Assistant Professor
Median - $56,611 (n=13)
Mean - $56,855 (n=14)

Associate Professor
Median - $70,200 (n=13)
Mean - $71,175 (n=14)

Full Professor & Above
Median - $98,900 (n=13)
Mean - $99,850 (n=14)

Nine month 2007-2008 salary for the newest hire at the Assistant Professor level in criminology/criminal justice doctoral programs (n=17):

Median: $55,000
Mean: $56,038
Highest: $65,747
Lowest: $43,500

BTW- I spent some time at the ASC 2008 Conference Hotel this weekend. Similar to Denver, there is a sculpture of two horses in the main lobby. I will be taking bets on the first prof to climb the sculpture.

Update on ASC

As I posted last month, the ASC has an Outstanding Article Award. It has been on the books for two years, and there have been some difficulties in selecting one article. Everything is ironed out and the award will be given out in St. Louis. Here is the info on the award -

2008 OUTSTANDING ARTICLE AWARD FOR RESEARCH IN CRIMINOLOGY (Application Deadline: March 1 )
The American Society of Criminology Outstanding Article Award honors exceptional contributions made by scholars in article form. The award is given annually for the peer-reviewed article that makes the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology. The 2008 Committee will consider articles published during the 2006 calendar year.

To nominate articles, please send full citation information for the article and a brief discussion of your reasons for the recommendation to the Article Award Committee Chair, noted below. The Award will be presented during the annual meeting of the Society.

All nominations materials should be sent to -
Lee Ann Slocum slocuml@umsl.edu

I often hear that certain types of research aren't appreciated at ASC. Here is an opportunity to nominate an article that you found most helpful to your research.

Here is a link to Dr. Cranky's recommended hotel for ASC 2008. The hotel is across the street from the Adam's Mark (the conference hotel) and diagonal from the Arch. The cost of a room comes with free HOT breakfast and afternoon snacks. BTW, the word on the street is the ASC is going to be locking in 4 cities for future conferences to keep costs down - Atlanta, Chicago, D.C., and San Fran. At least I will get to make regular visits to Alcatraz.

ASC Update

Here is the information on the article award -

The American Society of Criminology Outstanding Article Award honors exceptional contributions made by scholars in article form. The award is given annually for the peer-reviewed article that makes the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology. The 2008 Committee will consider articles published during the 2006 calendar year.

To nominate articles, please send full citation information for the article and a brief discussion of your reasons for the recommendation to the Article Award Committee Chair, noted below. The Award will be presented during the annual meeting of the Society.

The Executive Board may decide not to give an Article Award in a given year. The deadline for receiving nominations is March 1, 2008. The 2008 Chair has yet to be designated, so in the interim, send these materials to Chris Eskridge at ceskridge@unl.edu.

Dr. H - this may be something you want to send out to your group.

Dear Dr. Cranky

Dr. Cranky makes some interesting points. I am a bit behind on my reading, so I can't comment about the specific article. I thought it might be fun to list the best articles that were written this year.* Extra points if you think of a good song that illustrates the song. Here is my choice -

King, R. D., Massoglia, M., & MacMillan, R. (2007). The context of marriage and crime: Gender, the propensity to marry, and offending in early adulthood. Criminology, 45, 33-65.

There is so much to like about this article. It was assigned reading for my grad final. Most of all, it considers the effect of marriage on criminal involvement among a young adult sample of men and women. Methodologically, it is also a first-rate application of propensity score analyses. Not surprising, marriage was an important turning point for men. The relationship between marriage and criminality was more complicated for women; marriage only had a protective effect for women with moderate propensities to marry. They link their findings quite nicely to the work of Giordano, Cernkovich, and Rudolph (2002). I am tired, so you will have to read the rest yourself. Check it out.

Since we all have very different perspectives on the field, I am interested to see what you liked this year. You are more than welcome to include a discussion of multiple articles. No citing yourself.

** I haven't thought of a good song yet, but I do like Love Like this Before by Faith Evans (more later)

BTW, wasn't ASC supposed to have an article of the year contest? Did anyone win this year? (I went to the awards ceremony, but I don't remember this award.) The ASC website is down, but let me know if this is truly an award. If it isn't - it really should be.

*I saw this over at scatterplot (and at various other blogs) and this is the time of the year for top 10 lists. No, I don't have original thoughts.

Crime in the STL

Here is an excellent interview from Richard Rosenfeld on NPR On The Media. It is so well done. Truly a model for young scholars. It is perfect for a class discussion.

http://www.umsl.edu/services/ur/media/umslair/071116.mov

**Bring on ASC 2008. I will continue this post later with more information on hotels, attractions, etc.

Report from Atlanta

After a few days to unwind and decompress, I wanted to share my thoughts about the ASC Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The big news, of course, was the keynote address by President Jimmy Carter. It was, to put it mildly, the highlight of my week. (And Sean's, too, I'm sure. Ha!) A few random thoughts on his remarks:

~ He is a wonderfully engaging speaker. Of course, effective public speaking is a basic political skill at which lifelong politicians typically excel (our current decider-in-chief notwithstanding). Still, I was struck by how absorbing his remarks were. I think this is in part due to his (quite southern) habit of speaking...very slowly...and deliberately. (Though, it also probably helped that I am an acolyte of his particular worldview.)

~ There was a delicious irony in the ASC -- an organization notoriously loath to make policy statements based on criminological research for fear of engaging in "activism" -- inviting President Carter to give a keynote address encouraging ASC members to do exactly that! He called for criminologists to become more actively involved in documenting human rights abuses in the criminal justice system, including racial disparities in CJ processing and the execution of mentally disabled and juvenile offenders. Indeed, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Other topics generated much gossip discussion as well. For example, it turns out the drought in Atlanta affected business in the hotel. I went to a luncheon in one of the banquet rooms where, in an apparent effort to conserve water, the default beverage at each place setting was iced tea, not water. At first I found this puzzling as iced tea is made with water...until it dawned on me that it likely was bottled tea. But then, couldn't they have gotten bottled water, too? Also, was it just me or did it rain Thursday night? I remember being sort of half-asleep and thinking, "Is it raining outside? Are people going to start cheering or something?"

I had to cut my trip short this year; sadly, I missed out on what I'm sure was another barnburnin' performance by Larry Sherman & the Hot Spots at the Friday night Minority Fellowship Dance. Anyone care to give a report: was Albert "Delinquent Boys" Cohen there, shakin' his tailfeather yet again??

Here are some pics of the festivities for y'all:

Kristy, me, Beth, & Christina at President Carter's address (in the front row!!):

President Carter, mid-remarks (please excuse the yellowish tint; flash photography was prohibited*):



*Anyone besides Beth & me hear Michael Tonry describe during the awards plenary the "mass weaponry" in the room for President Carter's address? Crazy!

My Influences Toward Service

All -

Thanks for the suggestions for service activities. I have always been involved in community service and this has been a large part of my family activities growing up. I am thinking of a number of activies that I can do with my class, and I will post some as I move along.

As many of you know, I have always been strongly influenced by the work of Jimmy Carter. I know that many of our political viewpoints vary and that we could have a long discussion about his opinions on social and international policy. That said, I am in awe of what he has done to alleviate poverty and provide sustainable housing in some of the most impoverished communities in the South.

Please join me in welcoming him to the ASC meetings -

Plenary: President Carter, "Human Rights and Inhuman Wrongs?"
Schedule Information:
Scheduled Time: Wed, Nov 14 - 2:30pm - 3:50pm Room: Imperial Ballroom BTitle Displayed in Event Calendar: Plenary: President Carter, "Human Rights and Inhuman Wrongs?"