An Arizona State University associate professor of criminology and criminal justice will use a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant to assess risks of COVID-19 infection among incarcerated persons and those who work in correctional institutions.
Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions
The killing of George Floyd by a police officer and the subsequent protests around the country have fueled a national introspection about law enforcement in America.
“Defund the police” has been a popular rallying cry at recent protests across the nation.
Originated by the Black Lives Matter movement and police reform activists, the slogan was introduced to the public last week and is quickly picking up steam with politicians, city councils and mayors throughout the country.
The premature death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer caught on video May 25 raises questions as to how a call to investigate a person suspected of forgery can end up in tragedy.
In the graphic footage recorded by a bystander, a handcuffed Floyd is on the ground, face-down, and struggles to breathe as one of three officers holding him down forces his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes while ignoring pleas from the 46-year-old man and onlookers to stop.
The logistical challenges of teaching a class inside a state prison are complicated enough during a typical semester, let alone one that includes a pandemic.
This spring, an Arizona State University professor and a doctoral student were instructing 10 students based at the Downtown Phoenix campus, plus 10 more who happen to be men serving criminal sentences at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence.
America’s criminal justice system was already in the process of reforming, but the COVID-19 pandemic could make further progress uncertain, especially if crime jumps when the shutdown ends, according to a panel of prosecutors who spoke at an Arizona State University event on May 6.
To recognize alumni of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (SCCJ) who have engaged their communities in exceptional ways, the School proudly announces its 2020 alumni awards.
Editor's note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable spring 2020 graduates.
Genevieve McKenzie remembers the spring of her freshman year, when she questioned whether she made the right decision to major in criminology and criminal justice.
There’s nothing like seeing professionals doing what they do where they actually do it to motivate a student toward making a satisfying career choice. Just ask Cassity Sopha, a junior in Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions’ School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCJ).
Her office bookcases were half empty, with dozens of volumes already in boxes on a table in her soon-to-be former office, as Cassia Spohn completed her time as director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and reflected on the next phase of her career journey during the waning days of 2019.