DIT Seminar: How and why prisoners decide to file complaints

22nd November 2011

On Tuesday 22nd November, the Socio-Legal Speaker Series at DIT heard from Professor Valerie Jenness, Dean of the School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, who spoke on her recent work with Kitty Calavita examining how and why prisoners decide to file complaints about their conditions of confinement. This seminal study involved interviews with over 100 prisoners and an examination of grievances filed in the Californian prison system. This seminar was a unique opportunity to hear from one of the foremost scholars in the field of sociology speak about this exciting new work.

Event Details

The seminar took place in DIT Aungier Street (room 4068) at 6pm on Tues, 22nd November, 2011.

About Prof. Valerie Jenness:

Valerie Jenness is Dean of the School of Social Ecology, Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, and President-Elect of the Pacific Sociological Association. Her research focuses on the links between deviance and social control (especially law); the politics of crime control and criminalization; social movements and social change; and corrections and public policy.

She is the author of three books; including Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement Practice (with Ryken Grattet), Hate Crimes: New Social Movements and the Politics of Violence (with Kendal Broad), and Making it Work: The Prostitutes' Rights Movement in Perspective; the co-editor of Routing the Opposition: Social Movements, Public Policy, and Democracy (with David Meyer and Helen Ingram); and the author of articles published in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, Annual Review of Sociology, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Law & Society Review, Gender & Society, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, American Behavioral Scientist, Sociological Perspectives, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Law and Critique, Punishment & Society, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, and Journal of Hate Studies.

Her work has been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association, the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Pacific Sociological Association, and the University of California; translated and reprinted in Japanese, Spanish, and German; presented at an array of professional conferences and universities, as well as to the U.S. Congress and the National Academy of Sciences; and funded by National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the California Policy Research Center, the California Department of Mental Health, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the University of California, and Washington State University.

She is a Past Co-Editor of Contemporary Sociology and Past President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She has served as an Associate Editor for Social Problems, as well as an Advisory Editor for Criminology, Social Problems, Gender & Society, Research in Political Sociology, Sexuality & Culture, and Race, Sex and Class; Vice-President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems; Chair of the Crime, Law, and Deviance section and Chair of the Sexualities section of the American Sociological Association, as well as Chair of the Social Problems Theory division and Chair of the Sexual Behavior, Communities, and Politics division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems; Vice-Chair of the Law & Society division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems; and a Member of the Board of Directors for the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Council for Sociology of Law section, the Crime, Law, & Deviance section, and the Collective Behavior/Social Movements section of the American Sociological Association.