CRIME AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY DIVISION NEWS SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS WINTER 2008 Chair: Glenn W. Muschert, Department of Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056-1879. Phone: 513-529-1812. Email: mailto:muschegw@muohio.edu Editor: Sarah Shannon, PhD student, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 105 Peters Hall, 1404 Gortner Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. Email: ster0171@umn.edu Inside: Notes From the Chair 1 Critical Sociology Conference 2-3 Calls for Presenters 4-5 Members’ Notes and Accomplishments 5 NOTES FROM THE CHAIR Dear members of the Crime and Juvenile Delinquency Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems: Greetings from wintery Oxford, Ohio, where following a number of mild seasons, we are now experiencing some real snow and ice!  I hope you all are making it through the winter, and that you’re well into a productive season or semester.  There is always so much going on in our Division on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency, and I have a few details to highlight from the Winter Newsletter. First, as usual, our division will be very active at the annual meetings coming up on Boston.  Our members are organizing 17 sessions sponsored or co-sponsored by the division.  Please be sure to check the SSSP website to see what topics will be covered, and what might interest you.  It’s not possible to pre-register for the conference.  Relevant information can be viewed at the SSSP website: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/23. Second, I would like to stress the importance of our student paper competition, as this is a way for our division to recognize and encourage new scholars in our field.  Please encourage students to submit their papers, and the compete for the recognition and the cash stipend. Finally, thanks again to Sarah Shannon, our newsletter editor, for her continued service to the division.             With best wishes for a great 2008,             Glenn W. Muschert NOTE: This one-day conference being organized by the SAGE Journal CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY is being held the day following the SSSP Annual Meeting in the SSSP Hotel. By cooperative facilities agreement, all SSSP members registered for the 2008 Annual Meeting may attend and participate in the 2008 Critical Sociology Conference free of charge. CALL FOR PROPOSALS   2008 Critical Sociology Conference   POWER AND RESISTANCE: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS, POSSIBLE FUTURES   The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers Boston, Massachusetts, USA August 3, 2008   Critical Sociology in cooperation with the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), the SSSP Global Division, the ASA Section on Marxist Sociology, and SAGE Publications is pleased to provide this special one-day forum for building an ever broader community that can propose, discuss and debate creative critical/activist scholarship.   The 21st Century was greeted early on by an explosive “blowback” on September 11, 2001, shaking the forward operating base of global capital and triggering the alarms of an accumulated crisis that was well underway and continues to simmer across the globe. With the post-WW II social pact all but abandoned in the U.S., a growing financial crisis, and the stagnating social democracies of old Europe backing into recurrent, post-Fordist crises, the spotlight has shifted.  An era of newly emerging geo-economic centers of gravity, symbolized by a barely controllable expansion in China, threatens to intensify energy and environmental crises worldwide.  The expressions of this 21st Century crisis can be seen in efforts to criminalize waves of immigration generated by neoliberal capitalist expansion, in recurrent outbreaks of racist and sexist victimization, in systematic expansion of policies of neglect within a class stratified system of social service, in intensifying social control packaged as national defense against manufactured “enemies,” and in the development and employment of multiple technologies of genocide.  Both inside and outside of centers of power, the rise of new fundamentalisms worldwide under Judeo-Christian and Moslem labels are working in clumsy concert to smother and overwhelm the growing global demands for expanded social, political and human rights.   Throughout much of the past century the discipline of sociology struggled to advance beyond its roots in 19th Century thinking.  Sociology in the early 21st Century now confronts a similar challenge of entanglement with its 20th Century roots, struggling to consolidate new paradigms that can adequately capture the dynamics of a rapidly changing social reality. In this daunting context, progressive sociologists seek not only to understand society through ongoing theorizing and critical reflection but also to change the world in which we live through the systematic generation of socially usable knowledge promoting progressive social transformation.   From its roots in European critical theory, a critical sociology first emerged in the North American context, as elsewhere, during periods of paradigmatic crisis, in periods when the contradictions between establishment sociology and its surrounding social realities were particularly acute.  For over three decades, the journal Critical Sociology has been a leading voice of radical and progressive sociological analysis. Originally published as the Insurgent Sociologist, the journal emerged out of the turbulent 1960s and was formed when the "Sociology Liberation Movement" erupted at the 1969 meetings of the American Sociological Association (ASA).  Critical Sociology has from the onset been committed to publishing scholarship from a Marxist, post-Marxist, Feminist, and other critical perspectives. Its current editorial mission is to encourage publication of such scholarship from all parts of the globe with the aim of understanding and transforming contemporary capitalist society.   In addition to invited speakers, we are asking for proposals for panels or papers for this conference.  Paper proposals should include contact information for the author/s and a short abstract.  Panel proposals should include a title and theme of the panel and a list of papers and authors.  Please send all proposals to the organizers at critical.sociology@gmail.com no later than MARCH 15, 2008 for full consideration.   The organizers will invite all contributors to this conference to collaborate with the journal and contribute to a special issue of Critical Sociology, and perhaps an edited volume, on the conference themes.   Tentative Panel Themes Include:   I:        Critical Institutionalism and the Changing Political Economy   II:       Transnational Social Movements and Global Social Change   III:      Race and the Explosive Contradictions of Immigration   IV:      Feminist Contributions to Transforming Sociology   V:       What’s “left” of postmodern critical theory?   VI:      Moving Forward From the U.S. Social Forum   VII:    Neoliberal Crises and the Leftist Resurgence in Latin America   VIII:   Towards Progressive Social Policy   Conference Organizers:   David Fasenfest, Wayne State University, and Editor, Critical Sociology   Richard A. Dello Buono, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas 2008 CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY RESEARCH COMPETITION Submission Deadline:  May 5, 2008 The Sage journal Critical Sociology announces its Research Competition, to be awarded at the Critical Sociology Conference in August 2008. The goal of this award is to recognize and promote original critical scholarship that furthers the aims and goals of the journal.  We wish to recognize the best paper written and so this competition is open to everyone.  Over the past decade the journal has been home to articles informed by post-modern, feminist, cultural and other perspectives that critically evaluate the workings of the capitalist system and its impact on the world.  This year’s award recipient will receive a monetary prize of $750 and registration for the 2008 Critical Sociology Conference in Boston, MA, where the winner(s) will be invited to present their paper. Papers must be submitted electronically in a format compatible with MS WORD and authors should ensure that they receive a confirmation of receipt for their submission. Papers of up to a maximum length of 30 double-spaced pages including tables and references may be sent beginning in March 2008 but must be received no later than May 5, 2008 to the Chair of the 2008 Critical Sociology Award Committee: Professor Graham Cassano, graham@xrgb.com. Authors will be invited to submit their paper for publication in Critical Sociology. Thematic Session: Crossing Your OWN Borders: Theorizing Across Substantive Sections of SSSP Organizers: Mitch Berbrier University of Alabama in Huntsville mitch.berbrier@uah.edu Michelle Corbin University of Maryland mcorbin@socy.umd.edu Within our discipline, angst is almost ritually expressed about the sectioning of sociology into Divisions (in SSSP) and the dividing of sociology into Sections (in ASA). We thereby request theoretically-orientated papers that explicitly run against these trends, crossing those intellectual borders. We imagine that these papers would in creatively engage two or more theories or orientations that are ordinarily confined within substantive areas. Our hope is that such cross-fertilization can yield interaction, discussion, and contestation which may in turn yield advances in social problems theory. Human Rights and Social Justice: 2008 and Beyond Conference Friday, April 4, 2008 8:30-5:00 p.m. at Florida Atlantic University—Davie campus Innovative and enthusiastic presenters are welcomed for the first Human Rights and Social Justice: 2008 and Beyond Conference, to be held at Florida Atlantic University’s Davie campus in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This one day conference on Friday, April 4, 2008 will bring together activists, educators, students, and professionals in an effort to assess the state of human rights and social justice in the U.S. and to offer visions and recommendations for change. Each presenter will have 30 minutes to share their knowledge on some facet of human rights and social justice. Possible topics include domestic violence, privacy rights, death penalty, equity in education, and living wages, although innovative ideas are welcome! Consistent with the theme of the conference, those selected to present will be required to do so in a non-traditional format. Small amounts of traditional lecture are acceptable, but presentations must include another mode of presentation, such as a performance, interactive activity, reenactments, or role play. Creativity is strongly encouraged! All presenters will be expected to register and pay for the conference. Cost to attend the conference is $75 if done in advance, $80 on the day of the conference. A special rate of $30 in advance ($40 on the day of the conference) is available with documentation of student status (undergraduate or graduate). Please contact Dr. Finley at the email address listed below for registration information. This information will be mailed to all presenters as well. Please submit abstracts no longer than one page to Dr. Laura Finley, Director of the Center for Living and Teaching Peace. Abstracts should include a description of the topic, how it fits the theme of Human Rights and Social Justice: 2008 and Beyond, and the methods of presentation to be used, including any audiovisual needs. Abstracts must also include complete contact information, including full name, affiliation (if any), mailing address and email address, and telephone number. A resume or c.v. should be included as well. Please all materials to lauraleefinley@hotmail.com by February 29, 2008. Persons selected to present will be notified via email by March 12, 2008. Specific details about the conference schedule will be mailed at that time as well. Given that the conference is only one day, all persons submitting proposals agree to present at the time allotted. *** The Association for Humanists Sociology [AHS] would like to invite submissions for our 2008 Annual Meeting at the John Hancock Center in Boston, Ma, November 6-9. Our conference theme is "What is to be Done? Public Sociology in Theory and Practice." While public sociology has attracted excitement in recent years, sociology as a resource for social action is not new. From Marx and Mills, to Dubois and Jane Addams, to Al Lee and Francis Fox Piven, the reemergence of public sociology is really the product of a long march by politically interested and socially engaged scholars through educational institutions, professional associations and publications, and other places where sociology is done. Yet, public sociology remains a contested terrain, criticized as "too political" by some and "not political enough" by others. Since our inception in 1976, AHS and its members have been contemplating and practicing public sociology, mostly from the margins of the discipline. Now that public sociology is front and center, we ought to have much to say about it: historically, theoretically, ethically, politically, and practically. This Annual Meeting is an opportunity to examine the past, evaluate the present, and begin to shape the future of a public sociology that matters. Paper submissions should address some aspect of public sociology and its relationship to teaching, activism, policy or community-based research, or other aspects of sociology as they relate to incorporating humanist goals with sociological work. Please send papers, abstracts, posters or session/workshop ideas to Program Director Daniel Egan, Daniel_Egan@uml.edu or AHS President, Corey Dolgon, cdolgon@worcester.edu Joachim Savelsberg has recently published: Joachim J. Savelsberg and Ryan D. King. 2007. "Law and Collective Memory." Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 3, pp. 189-212. Joachim J. Savelsberg. 2007. "Violacoes de direitos humanos, lei ememoria coletiva." Tempo Social: Revista de Sociologia da USP, Vol. 19, pp. 13-38. Joachim J. Savelsberg. 2007. “Between Worlds: Marginalities, Comparisons, Sociology.” Pp. 49-64 in Lessons from Sociology: Global Perspectives on Sociological Careers, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Aldershot: Ashgate. Joachim J. Savelsberg. 2008. “Punitiveness in Cross-national Comparison: Toward a Historically and Institutionally Founded Multi-Factorial Approach.” In H. Kury and Th. Ferdinand, eds. International Perspectives On Punitivity. Bochum: Brockmeyer. CJDD Winter 2008 5