News

Congratulations to graduate student Kevin Wang who received a National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellowship, a distinction granted to just six U.S. scholars this year. Kevin works with criminology professor Gary Kleck.

The American Society of Victimology selected FSU criminologist Bill Doerner as the recipient of this year’s John P.J. Dussich Award. This prestigious award acknowledges Doerner’s significant contributions to the field of victimology and victim services. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the World Society of Victimology in Milto, Japan. Read more on the American Society of Victimology Web site.

FSU criminologist Kevin Beaver received this year’s American Society of Criminology Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award. The award recognizes his outstanding contributions to the field in just the few years since he received his doctorate.

“The Labeling of Convicted Felons and Its Consequences for Recidivism,” published in Criminology (45: 547–582) and authored by professors Ted Chiricos and Bill Bales and recent Ph.D. graduates Kelle Barrick and Stephanie Bontrager was selected as the winner of the American Society of Criminology’s Outstanding Paper Award.

In this era of increased accountability and tightened budgets within higher education, it is essential that programs and colleges demonstrate their quality and success. One indicator of the quality and success of a program is its faculty and their research, which can be measured through grant dollars received.

Dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology Tom Blomberg recently provided expert testimony to the U.S House of Representatives Joint Hearing of the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee and the Crime Subcommittee on Lost Educational Opportunities for Kids in Juvenile and Other Non-Traditional Settings. Blomberg was asked to testify because of his long history of research in juvenile justice education facilities in Florida and across the country.

A landmark case comes down on the side of Americans’ individual right to arm themselves. What the best research has to say about what it all means, and why. Read the rest of the article here.

The increasing growth in the U.S. prison population over the past three decades has been unprecedented in the country’s history, resulting in 2.4 million offenders in jails and prisons in 2007. The cost to taxpayers for adult and juvenile corrections in 2009 will reach approximately $50.3 billion, more than triple the 1986 cost of $15.6 billion. Consequently, lawmakers and policymakers are seeking alternative means of controlling offenders without jeopardizing public safety.

Congratulations to 2007-2008 Scholarship Winners Each year, the College recognizes outstanding criminology and criminal justice students with academic and area-of-interest awards. Congratulations to this year’s recipients:

Melissa Hickman Barlow, has been elected president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. She is the third FSU graduate to receive the honor in the past five years. Barlow is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and director of the Institute for Community Justice at Fayetteville State University. She has served as the College of Basic and Applied Sciences assistant dean (2005-2006) and the interim Criminal Justice Department chair (2006-2007).