Shadd Maruna is Head of the Department of Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology at the University of Liverpool. His research focuses on how individuals desist from crime and reintegrate into society, emphasizing the transformative power of identity and narrative. Shadd’s influential book, Making Good, introduced the concept of the “redemption script,” reshaping our understanding of desistance. He served as President of the American Society of Criminology in 2023.

This week, we spoke with Rod Brunson about one of the most urgent and challenging topics in criminology: race and policing.

Rod K. Brunson is a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. His tackles issues on police including community relations, youth violence, and evidence-based criminal justice policy. He has consistently called for effective crime reduction strategies that do not result in racially disparate treatment of minority citizens and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Rod is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

In this episode, we are joined by Professor Chris Uggen to chat about his work on voting rights for people with criminal convictions.

Chris Uggen is Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight Professor in Sociology, Law, and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a fellow of the American Society of Criminology. He studies crime, law, and inequality, firm in the belief that sound research can help build a more justice and peaceful world. Chris received the 2023 American Sociological Association Public Understanding of Sociology award, in part for his work (with Doug Hartmann) as publisher and editor of TheSocietyPages.org, an online social science hub that has drawn more than 40 million visitors. He is a past Vice President of the American Sociological Association and Executive Secretary of the American Society of Criminology.

In this episode, we are speaking with Professor Scott Duxbury about his work on group politics and the sociology of punishment.

Scott W. Duxbury is an Associate Professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research examines social networks, criminal law, mass incarceration, racism, public opinion, drug markets, and computational methods. His work has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Forces, among other outlets.

Ashley Muchow is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research considers the causes and consequences of social inequality, with a particular focus on policing, immigration, and racial/ethnic disparities.

Welcome to Episode 117 of The Criminology Academy podcast, where we are criminally academic. In this episode, we are speaking with Professor Benjamin Comer and his work around school shootings.

Benjamin Comer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Texas Christian University. His research focuses on gun violence, school gun violence, and mass gun violence. His additional areas of research focus on data accuracy and comparability, as well as spatial criminology. Benjamin received his PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University.

In this episode, we are speaking with Professor Zach Hamilton about his work on risk-needs assessments.

Zachary Hamilton is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Associate Director of the Nebraska Center for Justice Research at the University of Nebraska Omaha. His research centers on innovation in risk and needs assessment development. Specifically, he works directly with adult corrections and juvenile justice agencies to create assessments that are optimized for their agency’s needs. Zachary earned his PhD in Criminal Justice in 2010 from Rutgers University.

In this episode we speak with David Kirk about the gig economy (Uber; AirBnb) and how it relates to crime.

David Kirk is a professor in the Department of Criminology and Research Associate of the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago and previously served on the faculties at the University of Oxford, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Maryland. His research agenda is primarily organized around three interrelated themes: the causes and consequences of cynicism and distrust of the police and the law, solutions to criminal recidivism, and the causes and consequences of gun violence.