Hello everyone. We certainly have a lot to catch up on. The CJRC has been very busy over the past few months. Following our engaging presentations in the spring including the Reckless Dinitz and Institute for Excellence in Justice, we moved from the Journalism building to our new offices in Townshend 202. The move has been very productive bringing together CJRC and many of its affiliated faculty who now share the same building and we thank Sociology for making space for us. The next time you are in Townshend Hall, stop by and say hello!
The CJRC is continuing to move forward in a number of areas consistent with our strategic plan. The internship program has continued to expand and has become especially successful placing a growing number of bright students in agencies around the city where they work on important criminal justice research in a professional setting. We finished the term with 41 active interns in over 15 field placements. Our students continue to report excellent experiences and are excited about the work they are doing. Our field supervisors continue to train and model professionalism for the students resulting an outstanding placement and opportunities. We also held our first career panel for undergraduate students with representatives from the Columbus Police Department. Franklin County Probation Office and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction providing much information about potential criminal justice careers. We also have another upcoming career panel scheduled for the spring.
One area of priority for CJRC is the expansion of our professional relationships and collaboration with critical state, law enforcement and community agencies. In an effort to further establish and enhance these pathways, representatives from the CJRC have visited and met with key leaders from a variety of agencies and organizations to discuss data sources and future collaboration with CJRC affiliates. Some of these visits included key leaders from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Operations Support Center, Ohio Reformatory for Women, Ohio Department of Youth Services, Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Ohio Emergency Operations Center and the Ohio Department of Administrative Services Office of Information Technology. These collaborations also open the door for OSU students to visit, tour and engage with these agencies.
This year, we had a record number of graduate students (10) that received CJRC travel grants to attend the American Society of Criminology (ASC) annual meeting in November in New Orleans. Prior to the ASC meeting, the participants presented their research in our annual Graduate Student Symposium. Everyone who attended was very impressed with the quality of research our graduate student affiliates are engaged in.
In especially exciting news, Dr. Ruth Peterson (Emeritus Professor, OSU) recently completed her elected term as the President of the ASC. At the annual meeting she delivered an inspiring address and called on association members to continue to take action to facilitate diversity and inclusion and to not capitulate in their fight against injustice. Overall, she completed a very successful year guiding the ASC and its various entities capped by a very successful conference. Although she enjoyed her time as President, Ruth is very pleased to be moving on to new things including checking off vacation destinations abroad.
Also recognized at the ASC was the work and legacy of OSU’s late Professor Rick Lundman (1944-2015). Rick was a Professor of Sociology at Ohio State for over 40 years where he taught and positively influenced thousands of student colleagues. A special memorial event was held on the last night of ASC hosted by the CJRC and chaired by Professor Ramiro Martinez. Over the course of the event, many colleagues, former students and friends reminisced about their experiences with Rick and the impact he had on their careers and lives. Those unable to attend sent in written tributes that were shared with the audience. The event was a fine homage to a wonderful scholar, teacher and person. The event was videotaped and can be view on the CJRC Media Page at https://cjrc.osu.edu/media.
In addition to the memorial, CJRC continues to recognize the outstanding teaching and commitment to undergraduate and graduate education provided by Professor Rick Lundman through the creation of the annual Richard J. Lundman Graduate Student Teaching Award. All graduate instructors and teaching assistants (from any discipline) who instruct on the topics of crime, law, and justice are eligible for this award. The selected award winner receives $200 from CJRC presented during the Sociology Spring Awards luncheon.
The CJRC is pleased to announce the first Richard J. Lundman Graduate Student Teaching Award winner is Ms. Alex Fraga. Alex graduated from The Ohio State University in 2013 with a double major in Criminology and Sociology. Alex chose OSU for graduate school and is currently a 4th year graduate student in Sociology where her research focuses on criminal sentencing and law and society. Alex’s teaching style is highly influenced by the late Professor Lundman and she works diligently to instill in her students a passion for criminology and criminal justice research.
Finally, I wish to conclude by saying that CJRC is pleased to have an especially strong set of presentations occurring over the academic year with several talks discussing issues related to incarceration and to police shootings, both topics extremely timely and important. I look forward to seeing you at these and other CJRC events this year! A listing of our remaining evetns for 2017 can be found here: https://cjrc.osu.edu/news/four-key-cjrc-presentations-remain-spring
Dana L. Haynie, PhD - Director, Criminal Justice Reseach Center and Professor of Sociology
