John F. Wozniak

Reconsidering Restorative Justice: The Corruption of Benevolence Revisited?:

Restorative justice has emerged as an increasingly popular correctional paradigm that is drawing support not only from conservatives but also from liberals. Although this approach has value, its ready embrace as a progressive reform is potentially problematic in two respects. First, the risk exists that restorative justice programs will be corrupted to serve nonprogressive goals and thus do more harm than good. Second, there is little reason to anticipate that restorative justice programs will have a meaningful effect on offender recidivism. Thus, restorative justice should be viewed and implemented with caution.

Racial and ethnic stereotypes in professional wrestling

Abstract Wrestling burst into the mainstream of television entertainment and sports in recent years. A distinctive feature is the obstrusive use of racial and ethnic stereotypes. Synthesizing insights from cultural anthropology, phenomenological sociology, and Marxist theory, the psychoanalytic tradition, this article proposes a theoretical explanation of why the stereotypes are so marketable.

Toward a Theoretical Model of Peacemaking Criminology: An Essay in Honor of Richard Quinney

In previous research, core peacemaking criminology themes addressed by authors within the Pepinsky and Quinney reader were examined. These peacemaking criminology themes are types of crimes/social harms embedded in current social structure, types of theoretical frameworks/perspectives guiding peacemaking criminology, and types of peacemaking alternatives to confront the social injustices underlying crimes/social harms in todays society. Building on this previous research as well as a survey of peace-making authors, this article illustrates how elements of a peacemaking criminology theoretical model come into view. The article then explores the basic nature and connections of the elements in this peacemaking criminology theoretical model. The analysis concludes with suggestions of ways this peacemaking criminology theoretical model can be adapted toward future crime research and policies.

Assessing contemporary white collar crime textbooks: A review of common themes and prospects for teaching

Since Edwin Sutherland published his pathbrea!dng book, White Collar Crime (1949), numerous academic writings have focused upon the nature and extent of illegalities and harmful activities arising in businesses, corporations, and governmental agencies (Geis, Meier and Salinger 1995; el. Gels 1988). Given this diverse and ever-growing literature, one of the challenges facing criminologists involves the determination of suitable readings to assign for students taking a course on white collar crime. For example, in the recent past, criminologists teaching a course on white collar crime might choose to adopt as a required reading one of the early pioneering textbooks in this field such as Bequai (1978), Conklin (1977), Ermann and Lundman (1989,), Pearce (1976), and Simon and Eitzen (1982). Around this same period of time, several collections of readings on white collar crime research were available for possible use by criminologists in the classroom. The readings include: Ermann and Lundman (1978), Geis (1982), Geis and Meier (1977), Geis and Stotland (1980), Hochstedler (1984), Hills (1988), and Johnson and Douglas (1978). Also at this time, various in-depth studies of offenses emanating within organizational/corporate settings were published as books (Braithwaite 1984; Carroll 1982; Clinard 1983; Clinard and Yeager 1980; Cullen, Maakestad and Cavender 1987; Frank 1985; Frank and Lombness 1988; Vaughan 1983) that had potential applicability as assigned readings in courses dealing with white collar crime. It seems reasonable to suggest that all of these readings of the past continue to have relevance today for students taking courses on white collar crime. However, since the 1990s, three sets of published books on white collar crime have emerged to complement all the previously mentioned

Teaching to shift people’s thinking toward peace: the relevance of Colman McCarthy’s work for peacemaking criminology

Peacemaking criminology is often conceived as a theoretical perspective built upon linkages between religious, feminist, and critical traditions. Equally important in peacemaking criminology is its teaching tradition, which promotes educating people about the values of peace, integration, cooperation, and caring over the values of control, repression, power, and domination. Teaching from a peacemaking perspective has generally involved efforts to design crime‐related courses that feature core concepts, readings, and policies within peacemaking criminology writings. However, such peacemaking teaching and writings have not commonly provided a central focus upon what needs to be taught to shift people’s thinking. This article thereby illustrates the work of peace educator Colman McCarthy, whose teaching experiences in high schools and universities are predicated upon influencing teenagers and young adults to embrace the idea that nothing can matter more than the struggle for and embracing of peace. This article also explores the ways in which Colman McCarthy’s books, I’d Rather Teach Peace and All of One Peace: Essays on Nonviolence, offer a foundation to help people shift their thinking toward a culture of nonviolence and peace.

The impact of instructions on seriousness ratings

Recently, Miethe (1982) hypothesized that the use of legal referents in the instructions on crime seriousness surveys biases ratings. The present study assessed this possibility through a survey of 210 college students in which the respondents were randomly assigned to three different instructional conditions (items were referred to as crimes, deviant behaviors, or behaviors). Although instances were detected in which instructions appeared to influence ratings, most of the evidence indicated that instructional bias is not a major factor shaping respondent evaluations. This suggests that findings on crime seriousness cannot be attributed to the nature of the instructions commonly used in past survey instruments.

Reflections on writing about justice

As I have experienced at various times in the past, reading an essay of Dennis Sullivan generally makes me smile and chuckle (sometimes just inside and many other times with a hearty laugh out loud). In reading this latest work, again I smiled and chuckled (on the inside as well as the outside) about some sets of wording that Dennis utilizes to support points he makes in this latest writing about justice. For example, in regard to an early stage of societal development, he states that, ‘[M] agic was an exercise of power to satisfy needs – but magic rites were accessible to everyone. Everybody was empowered to do justice with his or her own yabba dabba doo’ (My italics). More profoundly, his discussion draws attention to how poverty ‘manifests itself in malnutrition” and “affects diseases such as measles, malaria, chronic diarrhea and pneumonia in bodies unable to convert food into usable nutrients.’ This observation is, of course, a serious human concern. But this is followed immediately, and by what I interpreted to be bemusedly, a more basic observation, i.e. ‘What can be the quality of a day when the imposed-upon has to run to the toilet every half hour in a semi-dehydrated state to keep the rich happy?’ Make no mistake, this latest Sullivan writing about justice has a serious sense of purpose. As peacemaking criminology is my focal concern, I was immediately drawn to his inclusion of a quote by R. Buckminster Fuller: ‘War is obsolete. It is imperative that we get the word to all humanity.’ As with much of his narrative, Dennis fills our minds with quotes from numerous social commentators, linking a relationship between justice and needs. It is important to consider the range of diversity Dennis uses to tell us about his vision of justice:

Criminology at the Edge: Essays in Honor of Richard Quinney

At the book exhibit of the American Society of Criminology conference in San Francisco, we were discussing new books about crime and justice. During this conversation, we especially focused on Richard Quinney’s new book about his scholarly and autobiographical writings titled Bearing Witness to Crime and Social Justice. The feature of this book that we especially liked was how it clearly illustrates the diverse ways that Richard Quinney has challenged status quo thinking about crime and its control during the past three decades. In this light, we decided to organize a group of authors to write essays in honor of Richard Quinney for this special issue of Crime & Delinquency. We asked each of the invited authors to reflect on Bearing Witness to Crime and Social Justice in a manner that either illustrates the progression of Richard Quinney’s thinking and writing or offers a type of analysis that is compatible with Richard Quinney’s scholarly writings. We titled this special issue “Criminology at the Edge” because we view Richard Quinney’s body of work as pivotal in bringing about many key paradigm shifts within criminology/criminal justice as a field of study. Notably, in the preface to Bearing Witness to Crime and Social Justice, Richard Quinney (2000) observed,