The American Society of Criminology (ASC) will present awards to two CCJS graduate students and three faculty members at the 71st Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., on November 18-21, 2015.
James Lynch and John Laub are the recipients of the 2015 Herbert Bloch Award, which recognizes outstanding service contributions to the ASC and to the professional interests of criminology. Lynch is currently Chair and Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice as well as principal investigator for the project creating the Maryland Data Analysis Center (MDAC), a state-of-the-art criminal justice data center at the University of Maryland, College Park. Lynch's research focuses on victim surveys, victimization risk, the role of coercion in social control, and crime statistics.
John Laub is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and served a presidential appointment as the Director of the National Institute of Justice in the Office of Justice Programs in the Department of Justice from 2010 to 2013. Laub's areas of research include crime and the life course, crime and public policy, and the history of criminology.
Denise Gottfredson will receive the 2015 Jerry Lee Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes life time achievement in the field of experimental criminology. The recipient must be a leader in the advancement of experimental methodology, experimental research, or the use of experimental methods in the advancement of evidence based policy. The award is not given for any single research project or study, but for a body of research developed over a career of interest in this area. An important component of this award is recognition of advancement of experimental science through the mentoring of other experimental scholars. Gottfredson is Professor at the University of Maryland Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology and her research interest include delinquency and delinquency prevention, and particularly the effects of school environments on youth behavior.
David Maimon will receive the 2015 Young Scholar Award from the White-Collar Crime Research Consortium of the National White-Collar Crime Center during the ASC Meetings in Washington, DC on Wednesday, November 18th at 2-3:20pm in the DC Hilton’s Albright Room, Terrace Level. Maimon is an Associate Professor and Director of CCJS Honors Program at the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice.
Megan Collins, a doctoral candidate, won second place in ASC Gene Carte Student Paper Competition which recognizes outstanding scholarly work of students. My research compared the relative efficacy of two methods of forecasting future burglary locations: risk terrain modeling (RTM) and kernel density hot spots analysis. Using five years of geocoded Chicago crime data, the study revealed that kernel density hot spots analysis consistently outperforms the RTM analysis in predicting the precise location of burglaries. Megan Collins is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a BA in Psychology from Brown University, and MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice from UMD. Her research interests include policing, gun violence, and criminal justice policy. Megan’s dissertation research studies macro-level trends in serious juvenile offenders' perceptions of police procedural justice.
Megan Smith, a first-year doctoral student, won the ASC Division on Women and Crime's 2015 Undergraduate Student Paper Competition, which recognizes outstanding scholarly work of students as it pertains to women and crime. Megan interviewed 28 women who were participating in the reentry services at a medium/maximum facility in central PA. The services had only been in place at the institution for approximately 18 months when she began the study and so no evaluation or feedback had yet been provided. Megan was primarily interested in their perceptions on the most popular workshops offered at the institution, relationships, mental health, and healthy living, and whether or not they felt prepared for their upcoming releases. Most women responded positively about the services and enjoyed the opportunities and information that they provided. However, the services still fall short in a number of areas as they only provided some general information and advice on complex issues that many of the women are dealing with. In addition, because Megan interviewed currently incarcerated women, how the services will impact success upon release is not known.
Bret Bucklen, a doctoral graduate, will receive the Practitioner Research Award from the American Society of Criminology's Corrections and Sentencing Division at this year's ASC annual conference. The Division of Corrections and Sentencing has initiated a new award aimed at recognizing excellent social science research that is conducted in government agencies to help that agency develop better policy or operate more effectively. The emphasis will be placed on research concerning community corrections, institutional corrections, or the judiciary conducted by a researcher or policy analyst employed by a government agency (federal, state, or local).
Congratulations to everyone on their awards and thank you for your many contributions to the study of criminology.