Historically, babies born in Kettleman City, CA have been healthy. But in the past three years, eleven babies have been born with birth defects, and three have had serious enough defects to lead to their deaths. Many of the residents live below poverty, and a number are migrant workers regularly exposed to pestides and pesticide pollution. Kettleman's water sources are also contaminated. There is also a nearby landfill, the largest landfill in the US west of Alabama. These two large landfills in Kettleman and Alabama are both operated by Waste Management Incorporated. Waste Management has proposed extending the size of the Kettleman landfill by 50%. Residents have attempted to block Waste Management's request, and this endeavor is an excellent example of environmental justice in action.

For further details see:
http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/07/kettleman-city-toxic-birth-de...

Bjorn Lomborg, a noted critic of global warming research and author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," has altered his position, recently noting that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront". In his newest book, to be released new month, Lomborg details the need to invest in policies that address global warming, which he argues could solve the problem by the end of this century. Lomborg argued that as much as half of the needed funds can be generated by taxes on carbon emissions.

For further details see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/30/bjorn-lomborg-climate-...

critcrim.org visitors and friends

Many of the books that have been highlighted on this site were written by members of the Division or Section. In some cases links were added at the request of the author. These links were removed in a previous version of this site, and I was encouraged to bring them back, so I want to explain the recent decision to remove the links.

The following article describes the wider issues, but the short version is that I have never been totally comfortable with these advertisements and am reluctant to continue directing sales to this particular company. I am working on alternatives that will allow us to continue the effort to highlight books of interest to critical criminologists.

The following, by David Serota, helps explain the context of this decision:

Duties: The Post-Doctoral Scholar will work with USF Criminology Professors, Fridell and Lynch. The Scholar will work on the National Police Research Platform. NIJ has funded a 3-year pilot of this multi-faceted, large-scale, longitudinal "platform" for learning about police and policing. The Scholar will assist with the implementation of multiple methodologies (e.g., survey, interview, focus groups, observation, archival data collection) to research an array of policing topics. S/he will work with the top policing researchers in the nation on this revolutionary project.

 

Ashgate Publishing will produce a new book series, Green Criminology, to promote original scholarlship
contributing to the expanded study of environmental harm, crime, law and justice from a criminological
perspective. Michael J. Lynch and Paul B. Stretesky will serve as series editors. The series is expected to
publish between three to twelve books per year. See attached annoucement for further details.

Keeping it Radical: Exploring Income, Income Inequality and Poverty Data for the US.
 
Michael J. Lynch (Department of Criminology, University of South Florida)
 

Here I try to make a connection between critical pedagogy and music.
http://musingsbydave.blogspot.com/2009/11/music-and-knowledge-part-i-of-ii-i.html?spref=fb

Let me know what you think!
Dave

 

Here is a list of all sessions found while searching the ASC program for Critical Criminology:
 
1. "A 'Critical' Approach to Teaching White Collar Crime: Challenges and Objectives", *William Calathes, New Jersey City University

Whether or not we are willing to admit it, the world is hurling to its demise much more rapidly than we would like to admit. This is due, in large part, to our modern state of ignorance about the state of the environment and the fact that, as Bill McKibben wrote in The End of Nature, that we have spoiled nature. And while we were spoiling nature with what appeared to each of us tiny little acts, we never saw the big picture, never connected all the “little” incidents of pollution together, never imaged the mass of what we were doing. As McKibben noted, “We never thought we had wrecked nature.

When we incarcerate people for petty offenses and trifling conduct which we disapprove, we not only deprive them of liberty and virtually ensure that they will never be permitted to rejoin our society as respected, responsible citizens. We rob ourselves of the talents and contributions that might otherwise help to meet the challenges of our time, and those that lie ahead. We deplete public coffers of much-needed revenue in a wasteful, destructive spiral of reckless ruination.

Is it constitutional to execute an innocent person? That's nothing the legal system needs to worry about, says Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Sounds outrageous, but as Scalia pointed out in an opinion last week, the court "has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas (reviewing) court that he is 'actually' innocent.

The court has managed to avoid the issue for decades. In 1993, a majority said a Texas man who couldn't point to any legal flaws in his trial wasn't entitled to a hearing based on his claim of new evidence of innocence. But in that same ruling, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said he assumed that it would be unconstitutional to execute someone who came up with a "truly persuasive demonstration" of innocence.

Mike Presdee, who has died of cancer aged 64, was a sociologist of international acclaim and great personal magnetism. His work focused on the sociology of youth and cultural criminology. He was fascinated by the way in which young people can be criminalised and controlled, and of youth being seen as a problem, rather than young people being the locus of the problems of the system. In later life, he attempted to understand and explain New Labour's neurotic obsession with antisocial behaviour.

 
Steve Richards and Jeff Ross were interviewed on NPR on their new book:
 
Great job!
 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106550398

CC folks,
There are several good introduction to criminology books out there from a critical perspective.  I'd like to think the book Hugh Barlow and I just published makes that list.  More information here: http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0742561860&thepassedurl=[thepassedurl]
Thanks,
Dave
 

Several students have asked me to supervise their independent study on the sociology of policing. Can several of you fine folks out there kindly suggest a few books that should be read by 4th year Honor students? Much appreciated, and kindly respond to myeager@uwo.ca. Matthew G. Yeager, Ph.D. King's University College University of Western Ontario London, Ontario CANADA

" Capital Murder" Interested in understanding the views of individuals on Capital murder punishment. Currently working on mitigating capital murder case, seeking the death penality. How do others feel about the death penality? And why, do they feel the way that that do. Has something personally happened in their life , to form the opion. Do you have questions or concerns about the Judicial system. PersonalLY, I do not support the death penality, under NO circumstance. I so strongly disagree with the death penality, that I as a Member and National Advocate; with "Alliance for Justice", "The American Freedom Campaign", and "The American Civil Liberties Union," work many hours to help stop this from continuing in America.

We still have a long way to go before deciding who the next president will be, so perhaps what I am about to claim will be disproved before that time comes. But if history is any judge I doubt it. You see, there are certain topics that are simply not discussed in any complete manner during an election season – or any season for that matter. And if they are discussed at all, it is at a very superficial manner. These three topics are racism, sexism and social inequality.