Patrick Jackson's personal web page
Professor
Criminology & Criminal Justice Studies
Sonoma State University
email: jackson@sonoma.edu
M.A., Ph.D., Sociology
University of California, Davis
Interests and Activities
Professor Pat Jackson is the founding Editor of the Western Criminology Review, an online scholarly criminology journal that has been devoted to open access principles for the past ten years, ensuring free and immediate access to scholarly information by all.
His past published research includes:
- a classical experimental study of parole supervision in the California Youth Authority (now a part of CDCR)
- policy research on the crime reduction and jail crowding implications of proposals for pretrial preventive detention in seven U.S. cities
- a comparative study of the uses of jail confinement in three California counties
- a contiguous cohort study of the movement of inmates and staff from Sonoma County's old linear jail to its new generation jail
- a review of the literature on theories about gangs, taken from a report he completed for the California Attorney General on youth gangs, and a separate study (co-authored) of moral panics about youth gangs in California
- a co-authored review of the literature on the efficacy of alternative forms of defense counsel for defendants charged with crime
- the validity of varied criminal data sources for the study of crime
- a nationally representative survey on the systematic errors that exist in the measurement of arson
His most recent publication ("Situated Activities in a Dog Park: Identity
and Conflict in Human-Animal Space," 2012 Society & Animals 20/3)
is an ethnography that examines how people manage animal-related problems
and conflicts in a dog park, ranging from failing to responsibly manage
a dog to a physical altercation between the dogs' human caretakers. Download
article here.
He recently completed an evaluation of a curriculum designed to instill
responsible parenting among juveniles in a continuation school and has
also collected qualitative data on the decision-making criteria used by
fire agency personnel as they filter arson incidents.
His web contributions accumulate crime and criminal justice information in The Redwood Highway, which includes SuperCell, California's crime control superhero, along with the Sonoma County Justice Profile, which is used a great deal by local citizens. More recently he created the Pacific Crime Blog, an attempt to bring attention to crime issues distinctive to the Western Region of the U.S.
At present he is involved in several projects:
- a quantitative, ten year followup study of youthful offenders
- research on the role of animal assisted therapy in traumatized youth populations
- using quantitative research procedures to to help develop restorative justice interventions for young offenders
- a comparative study of the role of evidence in sentencing.
At SSU he has taught classes in criminology, juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice, research methods, media and crime, corrections, and the department's capstone course in CCJS. He has also worked closely with local, Sonoma County, state and federal agencies to develop and professionalize the CCJS Department's internship program.
Currently he is Chair of the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects at SSU and has recently served on the School of Social Science Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion committee, the Degree Audit Task Force, Peer Review Committee, and others. He served as department chair for a decade and returned to teaching full time in Fall of 2010.
In the local community he volunteers by performing in music groups for public benefits and helps local nonprofits with web site issues.