Ruth Petersen Lauren Krivo Ohio State University
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project builds on the successful collaboration of a group of scholars from diverse backgrounds (African American, Asian, Latino, and White), disciplines (Criminology or Criminal Justice, Family Relations, Law, Public Policy, Political Science, Social Work, and Sociology), and stages of career (assistant-, associate-, and full-professors, and graduate students) whose work is oriented to broadening perspectives and participation in research on crime and criminal justice, and improving the quality of research on the interlinkages among race/ethnicity, crime, and criminal justice. These scholars (the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network, RDCJN) established a Summer Research Institute (SRI) and annual summer workshops as vehicles for pursuing these goals. The group has achieved a number of important successes. The SRI has graduated 22 young scholars who are publishing and gaining tenure. The RDCJN has also published two volumes: The Many Colors of Crime: Inequalities of Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America and "Race, Crime, and Justice: Contexts and Complexities" (Volume 623, May of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science). The goals of this project are to build on these successes. We seek to: (1) continue to advance the research and professional development of young scholars from underrepresented groups for carrying out innovative research, and thereby foster democratic inclusion in academe; and (2) undertake additional collaborative projects that will provide a more complete understanding of the interrelationships among race/ethnicity, crime, and criminal justice. These two goals are closely interrelated. Improving understanding of crime and justice outcomes requires bringing the unique perspectives and methods of underrepresented groups to bear by democratizing academe.
Approaches to Achieving Project Goals. To facilitate achieving project objects, the PIs will hold additional SRIs for underrepresented faculty to enhance their research achievements and success in academe. The institutes will be structured to provide a "safe" and resource-rich environment that supports, trains, and mentors young faculty in the completion of a paper/proposal for journal publication or grant review, and offers a tool-kit of information for survival in the university. In the long run, these activities should contribute to a critical mass of scholars-of-color whose work is visibly placed, and whose presence and success encourages students-of-color to pursue research and teaching careers. Second, they will hold summer additional workshops to develop collaborative projects oriented to improving the quality of research on crime and justice. The workshops will be structured to: provide a setting for reporting on and improving on-going research; draw on the diverse perspectives of scholars from different disciplines, race/ethnic backgrounds, and stages of career in developing research; and support the broadening participation activities of the SRI, especially by integrating underrepresented faculty into a larger network of scholars.
Broader Impacts. This project will have two important broader impacts. First, it will broaden participation in the field by fostering the careers of scholars from underrepresented groups. The workshops and SRIs will bring diversity in perspectives and participation to research and curricula within criminology and criminal justice. Second, it will draw on the expertise of diverse scholars to carry out innovative crime and justice research. The central premise of this work will take into account the complexity of race/ethnicity and embed analyses in the differential positioning of groups in society. Through collaborative, multi-method, and comparative studies, the researchers will produce a body of original multidisciplinary work that emphasizes the variable significance of race for crime/criminal justice, and how racialization relates to the understanding of citizenship and democracy, nationally and around the world.
