Education
Ph.D. Sociology/Justice, American
University. Awarded 8/1995
MS Justice, American University. Awarded 5/1990.
BA (magna cum laude), State University of New York at Albany, 5/1986.
Areas of teaching or research expertise include: Criminology; penology,
prisons and social control; white collar, corporate and crimes of domination;
violence, hate, prejudice and genocide; theory and public policy; gender and
race.
Teaching
- Professor, 2007 - present; Associate Professor, 2002- 2007; Assistant Professor,
1997- 2002
- Eastern Michigan University, Department of Sociology, Anthropology &
Criminology.
- Responsible for Corrections, Law & Society, White Collar Crime; graduate seminars on Domestic Violence &
Sexual Assault; Sociology of Crime & Its
Correction; Hate Crimes;
Criminological Theory; Violence and
Society; Race, Gender & Crime.
Adjunct faculty/lecturer, American University, Department of Justice, Law and Society. Fall 1996.
Responsible for Justice & Public Policy; supervising internships.
- Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco, Department of Sociology, 1995-96.
- Responsible for introductory general education
sociology class; white collar crime; deviance & social control;
criminology; and hate, prejudice & genocide.
Adjunct faculty/lecturer, The American University. 1990-94.
Department of Justice, Law and Society. Responsible for "Justice and
Morality" and "Violence in America".
Washington Semester Program, The American University. Responsible for
Justice and Law Seminar, Summer 1994
Publications
Books
Gregg Barak, Paul Leighton and Allison Cotton. Class, Race, Gender
& Crime: The Realities of Justice in America, 4th ed. Rowman and
Littlefield 2015.
Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get
Prison, 11th ed. [Routledge, 2017 ~ Amazon]. Co author since 9th (2010) ed. [companion
website]
Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get
Prison: A Reader. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2010.
Donna Selman and Paul Leighton. Punishment
for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business and the Incarceration Binge.
Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.
Paul Leighton and Jeff Reiman, ed. Criminal Justice
Ethics.
Prentice-Hall, 2001. Authored chapter: "Fear and Loathing
in an Age of Show Business: Reflections on Televised Executions".
Journals
Leighton, Paul. 2015. Mass Salmonella Poisoning by the Peanut Corporation of America: State-Corporate Crime Involving Food Safety. Critical Criminology. 10.1007/s10612-015-9284-5. [blog entry on PCA and article]
Leighton, Paul. 2014. “A model prison for the next 50 years”: The high-tech public-private Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center. Justice Policy Journal, 11(1). Abstract ~ pdf of article
Leighton, Paul. 2013. “Corporate Crime and the Corporate Agenda for Crime Control: Disappearing Awareness of Corporate Crime and Increasing Abuses of Power.” Western Criminology Review 14(2). http://westerncriminology.org/documents/WCR/v14n2/Leighton.pdf.
Paul Leighton, “Fairness matters—more than deterrence: Class bias and the limits of deterrence” Criminology and Public Policy v 9 #3, 2010 (525-533)
Paul Leighton, "Televising
Executions, Primetime ‘Live’". The
Justice Professional v12 #2, 1999. Reprinted in Peter Hodgkinson (ed). 2013. The International Library of Essays on Capital Punishment, Volume 3. Ashgate.
Paul Leighton, "Fatal Females: Setting the Record ‘Straighter’".
(Featured Essay) Social Pathology v 3 #2, 1997.
Robert Johnson and Paul Leighton, "Black Genocide? Preliminary Thoughts
on the Plight of America's Poor Black Men". Journal of African American
Men v1 #2 1995: 1995.
Paul Leighton, "Industrialized Social Control" Peace Review: A
Transnational Quarterly v7 #3/4, December 1995.
Chapters in Books
Carrie L. Buist and Paul Leighton. 2015. Corporate criminals constructing white collar crime—
or why there is no corporate crime on USA Network’s White Collar series. In Gregg barak, ed Routledge Handbook of Crimes of the Powerful. New York: Routledge. [chapter.pdf]
Leighton, P. and Reiman, J. 2014. A Suitable Amount of Street Crime and a Suitable Amount of White Collar Crime: Inconvenient Truths about Inequality, Crime and Criminal Justice. In Arrigo, B. and Berscot, H. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of International Crime and Justice Studies.
Paul Leighton, Financing Private Prisons. In Byron Price and Charles Morris (eds) Prison Privatization: The Many Facets of a Controversial Industry (ABC-Clio/Praeger, 2012) [Chapter.pdf]
Paul Leighton and Donna Selman, Private Prisons, the Criminal Justice-Industrial Complex and Bodies Destined for Profitable Punishment. In Walter DeKeseredy and Molly Dragiewicz (eds), Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology (Routledge, 2011)
Paul Leighton, The U.S. Can’t Televise an Execution Because It Will Make
Condemned Men Feel Bad About the Death Penalty? Issues Raised by the Suit to
Make McVeigh's Execution Public. In Robert Bohm, ed. Death
Penalty Today. CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, 2008. [chapter.pdf]
Paul Leighton, “Denaturalizing Terrorism: ‘Crazy Islamic Terrorists Who
Hate Us Because We’re Free?’” in Robert Bohm and Jeffrey Walker (ed) Demystifying
Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford University Press, 2013). Revised and updated from 1st (2007) edition. [chapter.pdf]
Paul Leighton, “The
Challenge of Terrorism for the Free Societies in the Global Village” for
Mathieu Deflem (ed) Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Criminological Perspectives
(Oxford, U.K.:Elsevier Science, 2004).
Paul Leighton, "Migrant Labor in the Ivory Tower: The Crossroads and
Crapshoots of a New Professor" in Stuart Henry and William Hinkle, eds. Careers
in Criminal Justice: The Inside Story. 2nd ed. Salem (WI):
Sheffield, 2000.
Robert Johnson and Paul Leighton, "American Genocide?: The Destruction
of the Black Underclass." In Craig Summers and Erik Markusen (eds) Collective
Violence: Harmful Behavior in Groups and the Government. Rowman &
Littlefield, 1999. [read chapter - 2.4MB .pdf]
Other
Aaron Thomas Kinzle and Paul Leighton. 2015. Review of William S. Tregea: Prisoners on Criminology: Convict Life Stories and Crime Prevention. Critical Criminology, 23(2), 215-8.
Leighton, Paul. 2014. Televised Executions. Arrigo, Bruce, Ed. Encyclopedia of Criminal Justice Ethics. Sage.
Leighton, Paul. 2014. Whistleblowing on Unsafe Food: Ken Kendrick and the Peanut Corporation of America, in Terry Halbert and Elaine Ingulli (eds), Law and Ethics in the Business Environment, 8th ed (Cengage).
Maya Barak and Paul Leighton. 2013. Immigrants as Victims. In Jeffrey Ian Ross (Ed) Encyclopedia of Street Crime in America. Thousand Oaks, Sage.
Paul Leighton. 2013. General Electric. in Lawrence M. Salinger and J. Geoffrey Golson (Eds), Sage Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Paul Leighton and Emmanuel Connell. 2013. Arthur Anderson. in Lawrence M. Salinger and J. Geoffrey Golson (Eds), Sage Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Leighton, Paul. 2010. A Professor of White Collar Crime Reviews USA's 'White Collar' series. Critical Criminologist, v 19 #4 (see page 8 of pdf)
Entries prepared for Gregg Barak (ed), Battleground:
Criminal Justice. Greenwood Press (2008)
- “Corporal Punishment”
- “Televising Executions”
Leighton, Paul. 2007. Judge Removed from Indian Trust Case for Saying Interior Dept. Is Racist. The Critical Criminologist v 17 #2.
North American Editor, Critical
Criminology: An International Journal, 2000 - 2003.
Mark Hamm and Paul Leighton, Teaching
and Understanding Sept 11.
Paul Leighton, Reading Robert Johnson, Reading
Folly. In Robert Johnson, Justice Follies: Parody From Planet Prison
(2005, Infinity).
Desire J.M. Anastasia and Paul Leighton. 2005. Understanding
Rape & The Threat From 'Friends' (It's Not Just About Dating). Howling
Harpies. Available, StopViolence.com.
Entries prepared for Mary Bosworth (ed), Encyclopedia
of Prisons and Correctional Facilities. Newbury Park: Sage (2004)
Media & Invited Talks
Guest on Dr DigiPol Show with Alan Rosenblatt. Washington, DC based show looking at technology and politics. Show of 3/28, Hate on the Rise. YouTube or Facebook (60 min)
University of Michigan, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Crime and Mass Incarceration: Reform or a 'New Normal'? (1/2016)
Women's Center Professionals Directors Meeting: #YikYak: It's not all bad; but, yes there are some bad parts & some actions we can take (6/2015)
University of Toledo Department of Law and Social Thought and Toledoans for Prison Awareness. Punishment, Profit & Rehabilitation: Thinking about a model post-warehouse prison. (4/17/2014)
University of Michigan, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Unleashing the Profit Motive in Punishment & Rehabilitation: Prison Privatization in the U.S. & Japan (4/10/2014)
Interview about private prisons on Crimes of the Century Radio: Predator Nation: America's Feeding an Insatiable Private Prison Industry (10/24/2013)
STAR Honors College Lecture. Manifestations of Poverty: The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. Sept 24, 2013) Eastern Michigan University.
TEDxEMU: Rethinking Prison and Public Safety - Thoughts from a Day in a Japanese Prison (3/2013) [more info ~ 12 minute video]
Sidore lecture, Plymouth State University. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Inequality, Corporate power and Crime. March 2012.
Invited class presentation: Understanding Domestic Violence: Why You Should Care, What You Should Know and How to Help
McDowell Conference, 2011. Theme was Criminology & Philosophy. I presented a paper called, Ideology and Agnotology: Culturally constructed ignorance, corporate media and the mystification of corporate crime. [American University, 28 October 2011]
University of Michigan medical school - student organization. Understanding Domestic Violence: Why should medical students care, what should they know and do. [See also DV101: Understanding Domestic Violence (3/2014)]
Invited Distinguished Faculty Lecture, Eastern Kentucky University.
“Don’t Cry for Enron’s Andy Fastow: 10 years Isn’t Tough for What He
Did.” March 2004. (see YouTube embedded player above)
Invited Keynote Lecture at ‘Incarceration Nation: The Warehousing of
America’s Poor ’ Conference, Ivy Tech State College (South Bend Indiana),
October 2003.
Interview with Wanda Waterman, The Voice magazine. Part 1 (v 20 #22, 2012) and Part 2.
Guest on CNN (2/2004) for discussion of school violence and my website, StopViolence.com
Guest on several National Public Radio shows, including On the Media
and The Public Interest.
Interviews and quotes on televising executions or televising McVeigh’s
execution: Fox News Network; Dan Trigoboff for the TV-Insite/Broadcasting &
Cable website; Sarah Paris for Switzerland's largest daily newspaper [the "Tages-Anzeiger"];
Dean Schabner of abcnews.com; Rebecca Rodriguez of the Fort
Worth Star Telegram
Quoted in "In a Side Effect of Economic Prosperity White
Collar Crime Flourishes" New York Times 13 March 2000, p B1.
Work on black genocide with Robert Johnson was favorably reviewed in the Washington
Post by Courtland Milloy, "The Numbers Add Up to Genocide" (7 Feb
1996: B1).
Speaker in Washington Book Forum on "Crime, Inequality &
Genocide" (10/96). Radio Interview on Violence for AWARE: Positive Heath
Radio (6/96). Television interview on Unabomber (5/96). Interviews with
freelance reporters about hate prejudice on the Internet and Luddite Conference.
Discussed televising the death penalty in a panel as part of "The Death
Penalty In the 21st Century-- Where Is It Going?". Organized by the
Criminal Law Society, Washington College of Law (1995); taped and rebroadcast on
C-SPAN.
"Industrialized Social Control" article used as basis for Keith
Suter's news commentary on Australia's radio 2GB broadcast 1/12/96 and 1/14/96.
Professional Activities
American Society of Criminology: Ethical Issues Committee
1998-99.
American Society of Criminology: Division on Critical
Criminology: Elected as
Executive Officer 7/99- 01; appointed to Awards Committee 1999.
Organized and Presented at a panel entitled ‘Confronting Hate Crimes’ at
EMU’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Celebration. Presented on numerous panels
about hate crimes and responding
to Sept 11th.
Site coordinator for National Institute of Justice satellite broadcast of the
White House Conference on School Safety: Causes and Prevention of Youth
Violence (10/15/98).
Reviewer for Justice Quarterly, Criminal
Justice, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, Journal
of Criminal Justice Education, Journal
of Applied Sociology, Media, Crime & Society, Michigan
Sociological Review, Journal of Applied Sociology,
Critical Criminology: An International Journal, Wadsworth, Roxbury,
Greenwood, Allyn & Bacon, Worth Publishers, Routledge, New York
University Press, Elsevier, Choice, MacMillan-Palgrave, Sage, Social Justice, Latino Studies, Crime, Law & Social Change, Latino Studies, and University of California Press.
Speaker in forum on "Developing Our Will to Build Communities That
Resist Hate", part of the University of San Francisco's United Against Hate
week activities (Spring 1996).
Pacific Sociological Association, Committee on Freedom of Research and
Teaching 1996-7.
Coordinator for the Comparative Corrections Institute trip to London in the
Summer of 1990 (A.U. class 73.551.81, a 3 week/six credit class to examine
British penology and crime control).
Conference Presentations
[Please note: my participation in academic conferences dates back to 1990,
but this partial list only indicates the most recent activity.]
2016. American Society of Criminology. Why is there no criminology of wage theft? (wrongful withholding of $50 billion of wages earned)
2015 American Society of Criminology. Author meets critics: 36 years of The Rich Get Richer and th ePoor Get Prison
2015. East Asian Law & Society Conference (Tokyo, Japan). Models of Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships with Prisons: An Incomplete Survey.
2014. American Society of Criminology. Whistleblowing on Unsafe food: The Dilemmas of Working for the Peanut Corporation of America and the Consequences of Helping End Mass Salmonella Poisoning. [more info]
2014 ISA World Congress of Sociology (Yokohama, Japan).Why Economic Inequality Matters for Criminology and Criminal Justice [more info and powerpoint of presentation]
2013. American Society of Criminology. A ‘smart on crime’ prison that enhances public safety: The high-tech, public-private Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center. [This was subsequentyl published as “A model prison for the next 50 years”: The high-tech public-private Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Center. Justice Policy Journal, 11(1). Abstract ~ pdf of article ~ more info]
2012. American Society of Criminology. Criminology Needs More Class: Inequality, Corporate Persons and an Impoverished Discipline. [more info and powerpoint of presentation]
2011. American Society of Criminology. Corporate Criminals Constructing White Collar Crime. [revised version of Leighton, Paul. 2010. A Professor of White Collar Crime Reviews USA's 'White Collar' series. Critical Criminologist, v 19 #4 (see page 8 of pdf)]
2011. World Congress of Criminology (International Society of Criminology), Kobe, Japan. The Problems With Private Prisons. [More info and powerpoint presentation]
2010. American Society of Criminology. Author meets critics: Punishment for Sale. [More info on this book]
2010. Midwest Criminal Justice Association. A Professor of White Collar Crime Critique’s USA Network’s White Collar Series. [An earlier version of this was published on my blog]
2009. American Society of Criminology, “Why Criminology Needs to Promote Class Warfare: On Silence, Injustice and Comprehensive Theoretical Integration” Chair of Session: “Celebrating 30 Years in Print for The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Prison
2008. American Society of Criminology, “Why Private Prisons Don’t Save Money: Examining the Overhead Costs of Executive Pay Through SEC Documents” (with Dana Radatz, EMU grad student) [more info and powerpoint]
2007 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences "Why is
photographing an execution a crime?" [My
blog has an mp3 version of this talk]
2006 American Society of Criminology (with Desire’ Anastasia) “Gender
and the Body Canvas: Analyzing the Portrayal of Tattooed Women on Educational
Television Programs” [my
blog has the abstract and a few comments]
2005 American Society of Criminology presented on an author
meets critics panel, which will be discussing Dennis Sullivan and Larry
Tifft’s Restorative Justice: Healing the Foundations of our Everyday Lives.
2005 Michigan Women’s Studies Association “Feminist
& Humanist Approaches to Understanding Perpetrators of Domestic Violence”
2004 American Society of Criminology “Conflicts of
Interest: Research, Policy & Investments in the Criminal Justice-Industrial
Complex”
2003
American Society of Criminology “Bowling for Capital Punishment: Why Is It A
Crime to Photograph An Execution?” Part of a panel of papers about and
inspired by Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine.
2002
American Society of Criminology “The Challenge of Terrorism to the Free
Societies in the Global Village” Part of a panel, “Critical Perspectives on
9-11”. This talk became
a book chapter of the same title
2001
American Society of Criminology: Co-presented, “Citizen’s Guide to Private
Prisons” (with Donna Killingbeck).
2000
American Society of Criminology: Presented, “Private Prisons for
Dummies: The Wild Ride of the Corrections Corporations of America.”
2000
Race, Gender & Class Project, Southern University at New Orleans: Presented
on Social Class & Crime
1999 American Society of Criminology: Chair and Discussant for
"Communicating Crime: Perspectives on Constructing, Controlling and
Disseminating Crime Information". Presented "Televising Executions,
Primetime ’Live’?".
1998 American Society of Criminology: Organized and Chaired "The Rich
(Still) Get Richer & the Poor (Still) Get Prison: Reflections on the First
20 Years. Presented, "Criminal justice, Inc (Click Here for Current Stock
Information)".
1997 American Society of Criminology: Presented "Crime Pays (High Annual
Dividends): Venture Capital & the Quest for Rational Imprisonment
Policy"; "Learning from Hate: Visions of Social Control & Dancing
in the Revolution"; discussant for panel entitled, Political States and
the Pursuit of Slaughter: A Critical Examination of War Crimes and Genocide.
1996 American Society of Criminology: Chaired panel entitled "Moral
Issues of the Death Penalty".
1996 Pacific Sociological Association: Presented "Black Genocide in
America?" (written with Robert Johnson, updated presentations of same title
to include current empirical work).
1996 American Association of Higher Education: Presented "Racism, Hate
Crimes & Service Learning: Design, Implementation and Evaluation of an
Undergraduate Course" (with Susan Prion).
Other
The hobby that consumes most of my 'spare' time is fixing and restoring
air-cooled Volkswagens.
