Building on nearly three dozen books using a similar format, Letters to a Young Criminologist, provides a long overdue, valuable, and engaging analysis and advice for individuals considering a career as an academic criminologist.
Building on nearly three dozen books using a similar format, Letters to a Young Criminologist, provides a long overdue, valuable, and engaging analysis and advice for individuals considering a career as an academic criminologist.
Drawing on the author's three decades of experience as a criminologist working in government and university settings, academic research, personal experience, and numerous conversations with students, administrators, and fellow criminologists over the years, the book offers helpful, practical, and highly accessible insights for experts and non-specialists alike. Key features include:
- Offers helpful, practical, and valuable analysis and advice for people considering a career as an academic criminologist.
- Tailored primarily to undergraduate and graduate students and untenured assistant professors, but relevant to a broader audience.
- Draws on the author's extensive experience and scholarly research and combines research and personal anecdotes.
- Provides accessible insights for both specialists and those new to the field.
While the book is primarily directed at undergraduate and graduate students and early-career academics in this increasingly popular academic field/discipline, its insights are equally relevant to criminal justice practitioners and professionals, including people contemplating or currently working in law enforcement, corrections, probation, or parole as officers, court personnel, and criminal lawyers.
PART I: Perception and image of the academic field of
criminology/criminal justice Letter 1: Who is the real criminologist? Letter
2: What are the positive and negative aspects of being an academic
criminologist? Letter 3: I have a criminal record and/or was formerly
incarcerated. Is being an academic criminologist a viable career option for
me? Letter 4: Are the majority of criminologists former criminals or criminal
justice practitioners? Letter 5: Are most academic departments, schools, and
colleges of criminology or criminal justice so-called cop shops? Letter 6:
Do other social science disciplines look down on criminology/criminal
justice? Letter 7: What is the difference between criminologists who work for
community colleges and those who work for universities? Letter 8: Does the
academic field of criminology/criminal justice promote diversity, equity, and
inclusion in hiring, promotion, research, and teaching practices? Letter 9:
What do criminologists wear? Letter 10: How should criminologists decorate
their offices? PART II: Educational and training path/s Letter 11: What
classes should high school students who want to become criminology/criminal
justice professors take? Letter 12: Is earning a degree in
criminology/criminal justice a good step if I want to be a criminal profiler?
Letter 13: Does earning a Ph.D. in criminology/criminal justice enable
somebody to commit the perfect murder? Letter 14: What level of education is
required to be an academic criminologist? Does a person need to earn a
doctorate to become a criminologist? Letter 15: I have a law degree. What are
my chances of being hired as a criminologist for a department, school, or
college of criminology/criminal justice? Letter 16: Should I earn a PhD in
criminology/criminal justice or an allied field? Letter 17: What is the best
PhD program for earning a graduate degree in criminology and criminal
justice? Letter 18: Where can graduate students in the field of
criminology/criminal justice look for funding for their education? Letter 19:
Are some publication outlets more friendly for graduate students in
criminology/criminal justice? Letter 20: Should criminologists be skeptical
of people who seem to have all the answers to crime, crime control, and
criminal justice reform? Letter 21: What are my favorite books in the field
of criminology/criminal justice? Letter 22: How can I deepen my knowledge of
criminology/criminal justice? PART III: Job prospects and career trajectories
in the academy and beyond Letter 23: Will earning a PhD in criminology assist
me in becoming a crime fiction writer? Letter 24: Will earning a PhD in
criminology or criminal justice help me get hired as a criminologist for a
criminal justice agency or a research consulting organization? Letter 25: Is
being a criminologist a good way to positively impact criminal justice policy
and practice? Letter 26: Im thinking about working abroad as a
criminologist. Is that a good idea? Letter 27: Should aspiring criminologists
gain criminal justice practitioner experience before, during, or after
earning a doctorate in criminology/criminal justice? Letter 28: Is it better
for criminologists to be generalists or specialists? Letter 29: What are the
hot research topics and questions in criminology/criminal justice? Letter
30: Is it difficult for someone who has earned a doctorate in criminology or
criminal justice to leave academia, work for a criminal justice agency, and
then return to academia? Letter 31: What are the job/career prospects for
individuals with doctorates in criminology/criminal justice? Letter 32: Is it
easier to be hired as a professor of criminology/criminal justice than in
other allied fields? Letter 33: How much money could I expect to make if I
become a criminologist? Letter 34: Is earning a bachelors, masters, or
doctorate in criminology/criminal justice a good stepping stone to becoming a
criminal lawyer? PART IV: In the trenches: Instruction/teaching, research,
and service Letter 35: How would you describe the typical
criminology/criminal justice student? Letter 36: What is the best type of
instruction in the field of criminology/criminal justice? Letter 37: My
students and I feel uneasy discussing controversial, ideological, and
political topics in class. What can I do? Letter 38: Can a person be an
academic criminologist without conducting or publishing scholarly research?
Letter 39: Is one research method better than another for
criminology/criminal justice? Letter 40: Do criminologists need to publish in
criminology or criminal justice journals, or is it okay to publish articles
in cognate fields? Letter 41: Must criminologists write books, or is writing
peer-reviewed articles better? Letter 42: Should criminologists partner with
local criminal justice agencies to conduct research? Letter 43: Do
criminologists need to secure funding, usually referred to as grants or
contracts? Letter 44: Is securing research funding in the
criminology/criminal justice field easier than in allied disciplines? Letter
45: How reliable is official data on crime, criminals, or criminal justice
agencies? Letter 46: Should criminologists give preference to data that is
collected via lived experience? Letter 47: Should aspiring criminologists
join the prominent learned societies in their field? Letter 48: Is attending
conferences in the field of criminology/criminal justice helpful? Letter 49:
Should aspiring criminologists become active and take on leadership roles in
field-specific learned societies? Letter 50: Is talking with the news media a
good idea for criminologists? PART V: Parting words of wisdom or
criminologist for a career Letter 51: Conclusion
Jeffrey Ian Ross, PhD, is Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, College of Public Affairs, and Research Fellow in the Center for International and Comparative Law and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore.
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