Criminal Justice and Criminology | CAS in the Media

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Criminologist shares good lessons from bad times

August 23, 2013

Aug. 27 Common Reading Tuesday

Scores of missteps as a soldier and cop in hazardous places have prepared Bryan Vila, professor of criminal justice and criminology, to make a career of studying deadly errors in his criminology lab at WSU Spokane.

His free, public presentation, “Mistaken Adventures around the Globe,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27, in Smith CUE 203 will kick off the WSU Pullman Common Reading Program’s guest expert series for the 2013-14 academic year.

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Who’s packing? CPL rates in Washington counties

July 29, 2013

Mike Gaffney, a social science researcher at Washington State University, said he was surprised by the wide variation in concealed pistol license rates in counties across the state.

But, Gaffney added, there seems to be a correlation between population density and …

See the video about CPL rates and an interactive map at KING5.com

Calculating Crimes

June 14, 2013

Perceptions of crime are shaped by a combination of personal experience and the media, says Michael Gaffney, associate director of the Division of Governmental Studies and Services at Washington State University.

Debate project takes WSU students inside Coyote Ridge Corrections Center

April 4, 2013

Of the 26 college students who teamed up this semester to participate in Wednesday’s debate over the issue of gun control at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, only half boarded the bus at the end of the day to make the long drive back to Washington State University in Pullman. The remaining 13, enrolled on-site in programs offered through Walla Walla Community College, instead rejoined the inmate population of the all-male correctional facility.

For the undergraduates from WSU – juniors and seniors working on majors within the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology – the trek to Coyote Ridge was the fourth and final one of the semester. And while second amendment rights may have served as the focus for their debate, most of the Criminal Justice students were drawn to the experience primarily for the opportunity to develop something more than an abstract notion about the realities of working within the corrections system.

Prison Privatization Can Impede Job Growth

January 30, 2013

Building on earlier research in which they challenged the widespread belief that rural communities can create job growth by hosting state prisons, researchers at Washington State University have now found local job growth is often impeded in communities that become hosts to privately operated prisons.

“Our most recent research, which relies on a large, comprehensive national dataset, is consistent with our prior work showing that prisons really make little contribution to local economic growth,” said Gregory Hooks, professor of sociology at WSU. “Moreover, our study reveals that, in states moving quickly to turn over management of their prison systems to outside companies, the privatization of prisons often has a negative impact on employment prospects in host counties.”