MS Justice, The 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
The American University, Department of Justice, Law and Society. Fall 1996.
Responsible for Justice & Public Policy; supervising internships.
Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco. 1995-96.
-Department of Sociology. 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
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.
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, 2007).
Paul Leighton and Mark Hamm. 2003.Terrorism, Political
Violence, & the Mid-East: the Teaching and Understanding Sept 11 Resources
at StopViolence.com. Marty Schwartz and Michael Maume (eds), Teaching the
Sociology of Deviance. Washington DC: American Sociological
Association.
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)
Guest on CNN (2/2004) for discussion of school violence and my website, StopViolence.com
Invited Keynote Lecture at ‘Incarceration Nation: The Warehousing of
America’s Poor ’ Conference, Ivy Tech State College (South Bend Indiana),
October 2003.
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 Jayson Blair, "In a Side Effect of Economic Prosperity White
Collar Crime Flourishes" New York Times 13 March 2000, p B1
(metro).
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.
Grants
Co-Pi, Grant Application to Ms Foundation for violence against women
project. 2002 (not funded)
Co-Pi, Grant Application to US Dept of Justice, Office of Violence
Against Women Programs. 2002 ($400,00 – not funded).
Eastern Michigan University: Faculty Research Fellowship (for Fall 2000)
Eastern Michigan University: Provost’s New Faculty Research Award (for Fall
’99).
Award from California Campus Compact as part of the 'Learn & Serve
America: Higher Education' program. Received 1/96 for 'Learning About Community
and Justice' proposal to integrate service learning into General Education
Curriculum.
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.
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.
Research assistant for Dr Jeff Reiman for the fourth, fifth sixth (2001), and
7th (2003) edition of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class and
Criminal Justice (Boston: Allyn and Bacon). Built companion
website for the Rich Get Richer.
Research assistant for Dr. Robert Johnson for Death Work :A Study of the
Modern Execution Process (1st & 2nd ed,
Wadsworth). Substantial acknowledgment for review and suggestions on Hard
Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison, 2nd ed (Brooks/Cole, 1996); Death
Work, 2nd edition (1997).
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.]
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).
Service
[most recent only]
Eastern Michigan University:
Crosscutting Strategic Planning Committee on Information and Communications
Technology.
