Policing and Victims

This exhaustive victimology reader is a collection of ten original essays focusing on the potential areas of conflict between police officers and victims of crime. Compiled in conjunction with prominent scholars in a variety of related fields and a sampling of experienced police officers, the text is designed to provide students with a broad view of the issues, while reconciling the issues to establish a productive working relationship between the two groups.

Max L. Bromley is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida. He has previously served as the associate director of public safety at the University of South Florida and worked in the criminal justice field for almost 25 years. He is the senior coauthor of College Crime Prevention and Personal Safety Awareness, has coedited a volume entitled Hospital and College Security Liability Awareness, and is coauthor of the 5th edition of Crime and Justice in America. In addition, he has written numerous scholarly articles on campus crime and policing as well as technical documents on a variety of criminal justice topics.

Robyn Diehl received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Randolph-Macon College, her master's degree in criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in developmental psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, with an emphasis on the effects of community violence on the development of children. Her primary research interest is the effects of lethal and nonlethal violence on criminal behavior. Her most current research is in investigating the effects of violent crime on community response and participation with law enforcement. She has contributed to various technical reports, academic presentations, and scholarly articles.

Bonnie S. Fisher is an associate professor in the Division of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. She has a Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University (1988). Her research interests include student victimization, violence against college women, campus policing, institutions' responses to a report of sexual assault, and attitudes toward rehabilitation and corrections. Dr. Fisher's most recent work appears in Criminology Security Journal, Justice Quarterly, among others. She is the coeditor of the book, Campus Crime: Legal, Social, and Policy Perspectives.

Denise Kindschi Gosselin is a Massachusetts state trooper and an instructor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Western New England College. Her earned degrees include the master of science in criminal justice, Westfield State College (Massachusetts, 1990). Her research interests include domestic violence issues, distance learning, and juvenile justice. Trooper Gosselin is the author of Heavy Hands: An Introduction to the Crimes of Domestic Violence (Prentice-Hall, 2000).

Janet R. Hutchinson is an associate professor and the director of the Public Administration Program, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University. Her earned degrees include the Ph.D. in public policy, University of Pittsburgh (1993). Dr. Hutchinson worked as a consultant and administrator in public child welfare agencies for 15 years before entering academia. Her most recent work has been in public policy decision making and knowledge use, and in applications of feminist theory to public policy decision making. She is currently working on a book that examines the development of family preservation policies in the United States between 1970 and 1990.

Robert A. Jerin is a professor and chair of the Law and Justice Department at Endicott College. His earned degrees include the Ph.D. in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University (1987). His research interests include restorative justice, crime prevention, victimology, and domestic violence. Dr. Jerin is the author of numerous book chapters and scholarly articles. He is the coauthor of Victims of Crime (Nelson Hall) and the coeditor of Current Issues in Victimology Research (Carolina Academic Press).

Peter J. Mercier is a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, specializing in computer-related crimes. He has 17 years of law enforcement experience. His earned degrees include the master of art in sociology, Old Dominion University. Professor Mercier is an adjunct instructor at Old Dominion University and St. Leo College. His research interests include domestic violence issues and computer deviance. Professor Mercier is the coeditor of Battlecries from the Homefront: Violence in the Military Family (Charles C. Thomas, 2000).

Tracy Woodard Meyers is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at Valdosta State University. She received the Ph.D. in family relations with an emphasis in traumatology from Florida State University (1996). She has conducted research in the area of secondary traumatic stress. Her research interests include domestic violence, crisis intervention, child welfare, and trauma and the family. Dr. Meyers is a Florida Abuse Registry Counselor. Additionally, before joining the faculty at VSU, Dr. Meyers spent 10 years working with trauma victims in a variety of social.service agencies. She is the author of numerous research articles and book chapters.

Laura J. Moriarty is a professor of criminal justice and assistant dean, College of Humanities and Sciences, at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her earned degrees include the Ph.D., Sam Houston State University (1988). Her research areas include victims of crime, victimology, fear of crime, and violent crime. She is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of four books: Victims of Crime (with Robert Jerin, Nelson-Hall, 1998), American Prisons: An Annotated Bibliography (with Elizabeth McConnell, Greenwood Press, 1998), Current Issues in Vctimology Research (with Robert Jerin, Carolina Academic Press, 1998), and Criminal Justice Technology in the 21 st Century (with David Carter, Charles C. Thomas, 1998). Additionally, Dr. Moriarty has published numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and nonrefereed articles.

Matthew B. Robinson is an assistant professor of criminal justice in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at Appalachian State University. His earned degrees include the Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice, Florida State University (1997). His research areas include criminological theory, criminal victimization, and crime prevention. Dr. Robinson is the author of many scholarly articles appearing in the American Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Corrections Compendium, Western Criminology Review, and Journal of Crime and Justice.

Amie R. Scheidegger is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Charleston Southern University. She received her B.S. in criminal justice from Illinois State University in 1990. She earned her M.S. in 1993 and Ph.D. in 1998 in criminology/criminal justice from Florida State University. Her major research interests are female crime and crime prevention. She is currently researching in the area of domestic violence.