ANNUAL
REPORT ON THE
DIVISION
ON CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY
Prepared
by the American Society of Criminology
Submitted by Dr. Meda Chesney-Lind
Chair, Division on Critical Criminology
Women's Studies Program
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI
U.S.A. 96822
March 29, 2004
INTRODUCTION
Members of the Division on Critical Criminology (DCC)
are involved in many different pedagogical, empirical,
and political activities, some of national interest (see
the recent article on Jeff Ferrell, member of the DCC board,
in the March 26th issue of The Chronicle
of Higher Education). The purpose of this report is
to provide in-depth information on DCC activities for the
year 2003. It is to the issue of membership that I now
turn.
MEMBERSHIP
As of December 31, 2003,
389 people belonged to the DCC. Thus, our membership appears
to have increased substantially since 2002 (when we posted
320 members). This increase is we believe a reflection
of the vitality of the Division as well as a significant
comment on the value members see in such membership (since
the division dues are not insubstantial).
DCC OFFICERS
The Officers for the
DCC are:
Chair:
Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Vice Chair:
David Kauzlarich, Southern
Illinois University
Secretary-Treasurer:
Shahid Alvi, St. Thomas University
At Large Members:
Walter DeKeseredy, Ohio
University
Claire Valier, University
of London
Rick Matthews, Carthage
College
Barbara Perry, Northern
Arizona University
Jeff Ferrell, Texas
Christian University
BUDGET
The balance as of December
31, 2003 was $5,185.40.
DIVISION PUBLICATIONS
Critical Criminology is
the official refereed journal of the DCC and is published
three times a year by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Barbara
Sims, is the incoming Editor-in-Chief, and she is currently
working to develop a new group of Senior Editors. Note,
too, that the current Editorial Board consists of a large
body (N=29) of international scholars, including Dario
Melossi, Ruth Jamieson, Julie Stubbs, Mark Israel, and
Walter DeKeseredy as well as a host of prominent US scholars
such as Claire Renzetti, Jody Miller, and Richard Quinney.
The DCC also publishes
a newsletter titled The Critical Criminologist three
times a year. Now co-edited by Pam Preston and Steven Muzzatti
and financially supported by their universities, the newsletter
includes announcements, advertisements, brief articles,
and other information of interest to critical criminologists
around the world.
critcrim.org, our dynamic and content rich website is ably managed by Ken Mentor.
In addition to being the official website of the DCC, it
also serves as the official website for the Academy of
Criminal Justice Science's new Section on Critical Criminology.
During March 2004, the division website was visited by
people from every state and over 50 countries. The site
was visited by over 3300 unique visitors.
There were over 4400 total visits and nearly 10,000 pages
were viewed. The number of visitors and page views increase
each month, except during summer months when these numbers
drop by about 20%. There were over 100,000 page views during
2003. Because of its popularity, we aim to make much more
use of the website as a place for exciting conversations
on matters of importance to our members in the year's to
come, and we have encouraged our members as well as members
of the Section on Critical Criminology to post their course
syllabi, current work in progress, etc on the site.
DIVISION AWARDS
At the ASC Annual Meetings
in Chicago, the DCC presented the following award:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Jock Young, Center
for Criminology, Middlesex University, UK.
Currently, we have a newly constituted Awards Committee
chaired by Martin Schwartz, and we are actively soliciting
nominations for next year's meeting.
2003/2004 Initiatives
This year a number of
new initiatives are being launched. Most importantly, our
website has been re-worked to incorporate a new Critical
Criminology logo that is a mix of original artwork by Jeff
Ferrell and design work by Ian Lind (see http://www.critcrim.org).
This logo will also grace a new flyer being prepared for
the table at next year's annual meeting by Barb Perry;
we aim to make the table a bit more visually exciting,
than in past years. The logo features the unique linkage
that the Division creates between members of ASC and ACJS,
and stresses the importance of the critical perspective
in both our organizations.
The division is also in the process of developing
a basic email mentoring service
to complement the existing ASC mentoring program managed
by Bonnie Berry. The Critical Criminology mentoring list
will be posted on the division website, allowing interested
parties the opportunity to contact division members for
advice on careers, graduate schools, publication, and activism.
This initiative is being coordinated by David Kauzlarich,
the current division Vice-Chair.
I also chaired two meetings
of the Section on Critical Criminology at the ACJS meetings
in Las Vegas, and we are endeavoring to develop closer
links between the activities of the section and those of
the division.
2004 ASC PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Several members of the
DCC will serve on the 2004 ASC Program Committee, including
Walter DeKeseredy and David Kauzlarich. The 2004 meeting
will also, for the first time, include a session at which
all the ASC Division Chairs will present information/perspectives,
etc on their particular divisions. Entitled "To Divide
is to Multiply" the panel is chaired by Julie Horney.
As designed, the session will stress the unique benefit
the divisions offer the ASC and will also provide an opportunity
for the divisions to celebrate both their particular contributions
to the field and the society while also exploring matters
of common interest and concern. The DCC was instrumental
in establishing the conversations across Divisions, and
we are very pleased to be a part of this historic first
for the ASC.
CONCLUSION
Like other divisions of
the ASC, the DCC is an exciting international organization.
Members are consistently involved in many exciting and
important activities, and the DCC always welcomes new members,
including those who do not identify themselves as critical
criminologists. Further, the DCC looks forward to again
working closely with the other divisions and the Executive
Council of the ASC to help make this organization more
visible around the nation and the world.
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