Milestones

It has been 14 years since a small group of scholars came together in 2003 to form the group now known as the Racial Democracy Crime and Justice Network.  This group has accomplished a great deal during its 14 year existence, and is proud of its efforts to promote learning and research on the intersection of race and democracy, crime, and justice.  Our traditional activities have included an annual RDCJN Workshop that showcases research on this topic, and a Summer Research Institute geared to supporting young scholars from underrepresented scholars in their pursuit of academic success.  In 2017, we added an undergraduate component to our activities.  This semester-long set of activities is geared to providing a common research experience for undergraduate students at various university sites in the interest of whetting the appetites of promising students for pursuing academic careers in crime and justice fields. 

In the interest of tracking RDCJN activities overtime, the following is a reverse chronological list of what we believe to be RDCJN's most important milestones to date. To submit a milestone, tweet @rdcjn, using #RDCJNMilestones.  In your milestone post, please include the year, as well as the date if possible, and what you believe to be an important milestone for the RDCJN.  Your milestone will be posted on this webpage.

2017

  • Spring:  Held first RDCJN "Research Experience for Undergraduates;" with student participants at 4 sites:  University of California, Irvine; University of Missouri-St Louis; University of New Mexico; and Rutgers University-Newark. 

2016

  • October:  Publication of "Ethnography at the Margins:  Why We Need to Understand the Relationship between Power, Powerlessness, and Marginalization,"  a Special Issue of Sociological Focus edited by Meghan E. Hollis and Ramiro Martinez, Jr
  • Autumn:  Received first National Science Foundation-National Institute of Justice grant for “Research Experience for Undergraduates.” 
  • July: First RDCJN Workshop held at Rutgers University-Newark, with Jody Miller and Rod Brunson serving as Co-Directors of the Network.
  • July: First Crime and Justice Summer Research Institute held at Rutgers Univeersity-Newark with Jody Miller and Rod Brunson serviing as Co-Directors of the Institute
  • April:  RDCJN Members Elsa Chen, Johnna Christian, and Andrea Leverentz held a National Science Foundation-sponsored Workshop on "Prisoner Renentry and Reintegration:  Improving Data Collection and Methodology to Advance Theory and Knowledge" at Rutgers University-Newark.  This was another important serendipitous/synergistic activity of the RDCJN.

2015

  • November: Publication of Deadly Injustice: Race, Criminal Justice and the Death of Trayvon Martin edited by Devon Johnson, Patricia Warren, and Amy Farrell. New York University Press.
  • August: Received fourth 3-year National Science Foundation grant. Receipt of this grant also marked formally the transition of RDCJN activities to Rutgers University.
  • July: Annual RDCJN Workshop held at OSU, Columbus, Ohio. This Workshop celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the SRI, and the 13th meeting of the RDCJN. The torch for coordinating the activities of the RDCJN was passed to Jody Miller and Rod Brunson and Rutgers University's School of Criminal Justice.
  • July: Tenth Annual SRI held at OSU, Columbus, Ohio.

2014

  • Autumn: Publication of Examining Racial Disparities in a Post-Racial Era by Rod K. Brunson and Eric A. Stewart. Sage Publications.

2012

  • September: Received third 3-year National Science Foundation grant for “Broadening participation and perspectives on crime and justice research.” Grant allowed for continuation of the SRI and the RDCJN Workshop.
  • Autumn: Publication of Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics and Injustice edited by Charis Kubrin, Marjorie Zatz, and Ramiro Martínez. New York University Press.

2011

  • Autumn: Publication of "Between Black and White": A Special Issue of the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice edited by María Vélez, Jody Miller, and Rod Brunson.

2009

  • October: Received second 3-year National Science Foundation grant for “Racial Democracy, Crime, and Justice: Broadening Research and Participation.” Grant allowed for continuation of the SRI and the RDCJN Workshop
  • September:  RDCJN Members Charis Kubrin, Ramiro Martinez, Jr. and Marjorie Zatz held a National Science Foundation-sponsored Workshop on "Social Science Research on Immigration:  The Role of Transational Migration, Community and Policy.  This was another early and important serendipitous/synergistic activity of the RDCJN; revised papers from this conference also yielded one of the now 7 volumes of the RDCJN:  Punishing Immigrants:  Policy, Politics and Injustice (New York University Press 2012).
  • Summer: Publication of Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice Network by Shaun L. Gabbidon. Pennsylvania State University.

2007

  • July: Received first 3-year National Science Foundation grant for “Race/Ethnicity, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Diverse Research and Participation in the Academy.” Grant allowed for the continuation of the SRI and the RDCJN Workshop. 

2006

  • Publication of The Many Colors of Crime:  Inequalities of Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America edited by Ruth D. Peterson, Lauren J. Krivo, an John Hagan.  New York University Press.
  • July: First SRI held at Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus, Ohio. 
  • July: First Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network (RDCJN) conventional Workshop held at OSU, Columbus, Ohio.

2005

  • December: Geoff Ward named the group, calling it the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network, and wrote its mission statement, which emphasizes the implications of crime and justice processing for citizens’ participation in democracy.  Until this point, we mainly referred to ourselves in various ways, often as the NSF Study Group.
  • November: Third workshop on "Setting a National Agenda for Research on Race/Ethnicity, Crime, and Criminal Justice," held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the AS C, Toronto, Canada.   Final papers for edited volume presented; workshop also served as a planning conference for what became the Crime and Justice Summer Research Institute (SRI) (25 participants).  Details for components of a summer research institute were identified.
  • September: Received first National Science Foundation grant for “Research and Training for a Better Understanding of the Race/Ethnicity-Crime and Criminal Justice Link.”  Grant established a pilot Crime and Justice Summer Research Institute.

2004

  • July: Symposium on "Inequality, Crime, and Justice:  Challenges and Prospects," in collaboration with OSU’s Department of Sociology, Columbus Ohio.  Marks the first major serendipitous/synergistic activity of the “study group."
  • July: Second workshop on "Setting a National Agenda for Research on Race/Ethnicity, Crime, and Criminal Justice," held at Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus, Ohio (25 participants).  Papers for edited volume were presented and critiqued.

2003

  • November: First workshop on "Setting a National Agenda for Research on Race/Ethnicity, Crime, and Criminal Justice," held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), Denver (20 Participants). Papers for volume discussed and decision made to propose to establish a summer research institute for “young” faculty from underrepresented groups.
  • August: Meeting of first steering committee to develop a plan for the workshop in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, December (7 participants).  Committee agreed to Hagan’s recommendation that we develop an edited volume as a vehicle for agenda setting.
  • April: Received NSF funded workshop proposal as a supplement to Lauren J. Krivo and Ruth D. Peterson’s “Understanding Crime and Community:  A National Neighborhood Crime Study.
  • January: Proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund workshops to set a national agenda for research on race/ethnicity, crime and criminal justice.