Terrorism response, crime in New Zealand and stereotyping are among topics for the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice fall lecture series at UNL. The series is free and open to the public.
The speakers are known experts and their talks should appeal to anyone interested in criminal justice, terrorism response and prevention, according to Chris Eskridge, professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice. For those who cannot come to campus, each lecture will be streamed live at http://www.unl.edu/crimjust/lecture.shtml.
Christopher Dickey, Newsweek magazine's Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East regional editor, opens the series. His lecture "Now that we're safe, what should we fear?" runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 29 in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. Dickey's most recent book, "Securing the City," was published in 2009. He has written for Foreign Affairs, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired, Rolling Stone, New York Review of Books, New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic, among others. He is a frequent commenter on CNN, MSNBC and National Public Radio.
Gary LaFree will speak from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Oct. 13, also in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. His lecture is titled "The impact of black swans on terrorism stereotypes." LaFree is professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. LaFree was president of the American Society of Criminology and was named a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2006. Before joining the faculty at Maryland, LaFree was chair of the Sociology and Criminology Department at the University of New Mexico and chaired New Mexico's State Crime and Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council.
Richard Rosenfeld will speak from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in Room 212 of the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center. Rosenfeld is Curators Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and his research focuses on the impact of economic conditions on crime trends. His talk is titled "The economy and crime: the role of inflation." He has published widely on crime statistics, crime trends, and criminological theory. He is a fellow and past president of the American Society of Criminology. He serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
New Zealand's leading authority on corrections, Greg Newbold, will speak from noon to 1 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Nebraska Union Heritage Room. Newbold was incarcerated for 7 and a half years following a drug conviction; during that time he earned a bachelor's and master's degree, and completed his doctorate after being released. He is professor of sociology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Newbold's lecture is titled, "Crime and Justice in New Zealand." Now regarded as New Zealand's leading authority on corrections, he is regularly consulted by the media and by government law enforcement agencies on matters of criminal justice.
Brent Smith, a leading expert in terrorism and social movements, will speak from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Dec. 8 in the Nebraska Union. His address is "Patterns of American terrorism and the federal response." A distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Arkansas, he is director of the Terrorism Research Center where he continues his ground-breaking research on social movements — primarily terrorism. He is the author of "Terrorism in America: Pipe Bombs and Pipe Dreams," and more than 50 journal articles and book chapters. Smith has testified regarding terrorism on several occasions before the U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime.
— Kim Hachiya, University Communications