Florida State College Of Criminology & Criminal Justice

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice ranked #1 among criminology and criminal justice programs

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice ranked #1 among all criminology and criminal justice program faculties for faculty research.  A recent article in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education by Professor Gary Kleck and recent College Ph.D. graduate, J.C. Barnes, shows that the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University has the most productive faculty in the United States.

The study counted articles published in refereed scholarly journals from 2005 through 2009 inclusive, for all U.S. criminology and criminal justice programs offering the doctorate. FSU ranked first in the number of articles published, whether the journals were weighted by prestige or not, and ranked first even when the most productive “superstar” was excluded from each program’s article counts. The research is a replication of research covering the 2000-2005 period, and indicates that FSU increased from 7th position in that earlier ranking to first in the most recent ranking. The FSU faculty published 227 refereed articles in 2005-2009 inclusive, compared to just 193 by their nearest competitor. The article was published in March 2011.

In Memoriam Mrs. Mary Harris

Youtube video - Tribute to Mary Harris

On Saturday, December 18, 2010 the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice lost a very dear friend, and someone that many alumni knew very well, Mary Harris. Known as “Mary” to faculty, and “Mrs. Harris” to thousands of students, she was a tireless worker, a dedicated professional, and a friend to all.

A lifetime resident of Tallahassee, Mary Meginniss Harris was born on February 21, 1915, and as a child lived downtown on the site of the current City Hall. She graduated from Florida High School in 1933 and from Florida State College for Women in 1937. Following her graduation from FSCW Mary taught at Leon High School in the Home Economics Department. She married Joseph Richard (Dick) Harris on Christmas day in 1939 and they had one son, Joseph (Joe) Richard Harris, Jr.

Mary was a valued and very special member of the staff in Criminology and Criminal Justice from its very beginning. Starting in 1965 as the first fulltime staff member, - before Criminology was a College, before it was a School, before it was even a Department - there was Mary Harris. Her title could have been Secretary, Administrative Assistant, Office Manager, Guidance Counselor, Bookkeeper, Undergraduate Advisor, Graduate Coordinator, Internship Director, Faculty Counselor – you name it – she did it all, and she always did it with care and compassion!

If an undergraduate student came in with a question or a problem with which they needed help, they went to Mrs. Harris. If a graduate student just needed somebody to commiserate with when they were having a bad day, they went to Mrs. Harris. If a new faculty member didn’t know some of the Universities policies or procedures, they went to Mrs. Harris. If a faculty member’s car wouldn’t start and he desperately needed a ride to the airport to catch a flight, he went to Mrs. Harris. (Yes, that was me!) She was always smiling and gracious as she responded to the needs of others, and if she had a fault it was in never learning how to say “no” to a student or faculty member who needed her help.

Mary was seldom sick, or if she was it never showed, and it certainly never kept her from coming to work. But maybe that’s the key! I don’t think Mary ever saw it as work; it was more like a calling. She was needed, she was appreciated, and she responded.

I have a vivid memory of the only time I ever saw Mary cry. I had stopped by to ask Dean Czajkoski a question and she told me that someone was in his office. At about that time Gene opened the door and asked Mary to come in. A few minutes later the person who had been in Gene’s office left and it was a man in military uniform. Mary had just been informed that her son Joe, who had graduated with a degree in criminology from FSU in 1969, had been killed in Vietnam. She came out of the Dean’s office and sat down behind her desk. She was crying rather quietly and seemed to be in a state of shock. As Gene and I tried to console her, she picked up a student folder she had been working on and began to calculate a GPA as part of the student’s graduation checklist.

I was Interim Dean for a couple of years in the late 1980’s, and during that time I developed a personal and professional appreciation for how helpful Mary could be to the Dean. We worked together side-by-side and I could always count on her to assist me when I was tackling a Dean’s office task for the first time. I might start to do something in a particular way and show it to Mary to see what she thought. It was not uncommon to have her say, “well you can do it that way if you think that it is best, but we usually find that it works better if we do it this way.” I would think about it and almost always decide that she was right and do it the way that she suggested. In dealing with personnel issues she would frequently use a Southern expression, “you know that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.” Mary was wise well beyond her years.

Mary retired from FSU in 1990, but she never really left Criminology. She continued to participate in various formal and informal meetings, social functions and ceremonies of the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She also established an academic endowment in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the Joseph Richard Harris, Jr. Memorial Endowment for Excellence in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

When she established the endowment, a quote from Mary in the Florida State Times (Oct., 1996) perhaps best summed up what always motivated and inspired her. “The students were always our first job. At Florida State we always made sure that everything we did was in the best interest of the students. I hope this endowment will enable the School of Criminology to provide excellent instruction and personal attention to its students.”

Mary is gone, but her memory and her many contributions to the students in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice will live forever through the Joe Harris Memorial Endowment Fund.

All of us who had the pleasure of knowing and working with Mrs. Harris owe her a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. The best that we can do is to try to follow the example that she set for us and remember that “the students are always our first responsibility”.

Rest in peace Mrs. Harris.

Gordon P. Waldo, Professor Emeritus
College of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Florida State University

Youtube video - Tribute to Mary Harris

Congratulations to doctoral students Joshua Cochran and Ryan Shields who received University Awards

College alum and recently retired associate professor of criminal justice at FAU, Dr. Charles Russell Massey passes away.

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice alum Dr. Charles Russell Massey who recently retired as associate professor of criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University, passed away, Friday, March 23, 2012. Dr. Massey received his doctorate in criminology from FSU and worked on the Des Moines Community-Based Corrections Exemplary Project at FSU from 1974 to 1977. A tribute to Dr. Massey can be found at  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/palmbeachpost/obituary.aspx?n=charles-russell-massey&pid=156664081&fhid=14812

Career Connections: A Panel Discussion. Learn about criminology and criminal justice careers through panel and roundtable discussions. Thursday, March 22, 2012, 3:00 p.m. Claude Pepper Auditorium

Learn about criminology and criminal justice careers through panel and roundtable discussions. Panelists will share with students how to prepare for a career like theirs and what it takes to be successful in the field.

Take time to network while enjoying refreshments and speak with panelists from various backgrounds including:

• Walton County Sherriff’s Department

• Brock Communications

• Tallahassee Public Defenders Office, Private Investigative Services, and Attorney General’s Office.

• Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Find out how to get your career off to a good start by talking with an advisor from the Career Center, working with the College’s Internship Office, and discussing graduate degree options with the College’s graduate representative.

 Panel Moderator - Dr. Patricia Warren, Associate Professor College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Combined Bachelor’s to Master’s Degree Informational Session, Tuesday, March 27, 2:00pm, Hecht House Czajkoski Conference Room.

Undergraduate criminology students interested in taking graduate courses to get a jump start on graduate school are cordially invited to attend an informational session on Tuesday, March 27, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hecht House Czajkoski Conference Room.  Check the criminology website at https://www.criminology.fsu.edu/p/current-undergrad-bsms.php to find eligibility requirements and specific information about this exciting program.  Light refreshments will be served.

Professors Bales, Stults and Warren promoted

 Associate Professor Bill Bales has been promoted to professor and Assistant Professors Brian Stults and Patricia Warren have been promoted to associate professor with tenure in the FSU College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Bales joined the faculty in 2003 from the Florida Department of Corrections where he was Bureau Chief of Research and Data Analysis. He received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. Bales' main research interests are sentencing, assessing the effectiveness and consequences of punishment strategies, evaluation of correctional practices and programs, and community re-entry,

Stults joined the faculty in 2006 from the criminology, law and society department at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from the University at Albany (SUNY). Stults' main research interests are race and crime, neighborhoods and crime, and residential segregation.

Warren joined the faculty in 2006 from the department of sociology at the University of Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Warren's main research interests are racial profiling, race and class inequalities, disparities in criminal justice processing, and crime and social control.

 American Jails, an official publication of the American Jail Association, features recent research conducted by the College’s Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research on Broward County’s Jail Population Management. Learn more

  The journal, American Jails, an official publication of the American Jail Association, featured recent research conducted by the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research in the January/February 2012 issue, Volume XXV/ Number 6.

 In August 2009, the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, partnered with the College to conduct research that would assist the sheriff’s office in planning and preparing for the future. Project results are detailed in the article “Broward County’s Jail Population Management”, authored by: Karen Mann, Kristina Gulick, Tom Blomberg, William Bales, and Alex Piquero

The research scope of work included three key elements:

• A 10-year jail population forecast for the county’s jail population;
• A cost-benefit analysis for jail alternatives compared to jail; and
• A validation identifying the level of predictive accuracy of the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) risk assessment tool used to inform the pretrial release decision-making process.

 The Broward Sheriff’s Office believed this research to be extremely important because building and operating a jail is a costly pursuit and effective alternatives must be found. The challenges associated with planning and operating a jail system with cost-effective practices and policies, while simultaneously maintaining public safety are daunting. The Broward Sheriff’s Office has reduced their pretrial jail population by implementing a risk assessment screening tool and by developing a continuum of jail alternatives such as day reporting and reentry, probation, drug court, pretrial services, and others. One indication that changes in policies and practices had made an impact occurred when the agency was able to close one of its jails in October, 2009. Deferring the construction of a new jail and closing of another has saved county taxpayers millions of dollars. In Broward County, 25 cents of every local tax dollar is dedicated to the operation and maintenance of jails. The findings from the research discussed in the American Jails article provide evidence that the agency is on the right track with responsible, cost-effective policies and practices. The Broward Sheriff’s Office has been proactive in developing and providing alternatives to incarceration that ensure public safety and cost efficiency. In addition to providing alternatives to jail, the agency has initiated use of an effective screening tool to increase efficiency and accuracy when making placement recommendations. Other jurisdictions throughout the country that are dealing with overcrowded jail conditions could benefit by considering the suitability of implementing some of Broward County’s jail alternatives and practices as a proven means to ensure public safety and cost efficiency.

Authors: Karen Mann, FSU Director, Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research, Kristina Gulick, Director of Community Control, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Dr. Tom Blomberg, FSU Dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology, Dr. William Bales, FSU associate professor of Criminology and Dr. Alex Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas, Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology.

Also involved in the research project were FSU Criminology graduate assistant, Joseph Nedelec and FSU Criminology graduate, Dr. Ryan Meldrum.

Careers in Criminology Workshop, Thursday, February 9th, 3:00 p.m. Hecht House Czajkoski Conference Room.

Criminology and Computer Criminology students are cordially invited to attend a workshop on Careers in Criminology presented by the FSU Career Center on February 9^th at 3:00 p.m. in the Hecht House Conference Room.

SAGE begins publishing Journal of Drug Issues. The College of Criminology and Criminal Justice has chosen SAGE to publish the Journal of Drug Issues, beginning in January, 2012

Journal of Drug Issues (JDI) continues its dedication to providing a professional and scholarly forum centered on the national and international problems associated with drugs, especially illicit drugs. With international contributors and subscribers, JDI is an instrument widely used by research scholars, public policy analysts, and those involved in the day-to-day struggle against the problem of drug abuse. Joining the SAGE journal family means that Journal of Drug Issues will be available through SAGE Journals Online and authors will be able to submit articles for review through SAGE Track.

“We chose SAGE because we were impressed with the strength of its criminology list and felt like JDI would fit in well,” said Tom Blomberg, Dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology. “We were also looking at a publisher who could make the work more discoverable and felt like the SAGE Journals Online platform performs well in that area.”

The Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice is known for its ground-breaking research, challenging coursework, and inspiring intellectual community.

“SAGE helps organizations dedicated to furthering their research do so by allowing them to concentrate on selecting the best research for their journal,” said Bob Howard, SAGE Executive Director, US Journals. “SAGE is happy to provide greater technological methods of dissemination and discoverability with our tools and platform.”

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The Journal of Drug Issues (JDI) was incorporated as a nonprofit entity in the State of Florida in 1971. In 1996, JDI was transferred to the Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the Richard L. Rachin Endowment was established to support its continued publication. Since its inception, JDI has been dedicated to providing a professional and scholarly forum centered on the national and international problems associated with drugs, especially illicit drugs. It is a refereed publication with international contributors and subscribers. As a leader in its field, JDI is an instrument widely used by research scholars, public policy analysts, and those involved in the day-to-day struggle against the problem of drug abuse. http://www2.criminology.fsu.edu/~jdi/default.htm

SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com