UC Press Blog

“The tough-looking blonde over there,” is how Darlene was described to us nearly fifteen years ago when we launched our ongoing project with formerly incarcerated women in Massachusetts. Our first conversation was brief; her words were clipped. She gave the impression that she was annoyed, that she was in a hurry to go somewhere important.

July 30th is the UN-recognized World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, while January 11th is the US-recognized National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Both days center on bringing attention and education to the public about the issue of human trafficking. While these days are crucial for shining a spotlight on the problem, the conversation often stops short of deeper insights and solutions. Criminological theories can offer us the foundation and tools to do just that.

By Grace Howard, author of The Pregnancy Police: Conceiving Crime, Arresting PersonhoodWhen I say that the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses are legal persons, many people may assume I’m talking about the recent opinion that stated embryos created in the cour

Gun Present takes us inside the everyday operations of the law at a courthouse in the Deep South. Illuminating the challenges accompanying the prosecution of criminal cases involving guns, the three coauthors—an anthropologist, a geographer, and a district attorney—present a deeply human portrait of

By Jeffrey S. Adler, author of Bluecoated Terror: Jim Crow New Orleans and the Roots of Modern Police BrutalityThe horrific recent murders of Tyre Nichols, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Laquan McDonald, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and many other African American citizens have brought increased p

By Rebecca Sharpless, author of Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE AirMy new book Shackled recounts the harrowing real-life experiences of 92 individuals abused during a failed deportation flight to Somalia. Through the eyes of Sa’id Janale and Abdulahi Hassan, the book exposes the grim rea

Cesraéa Rumpf, author of RECOVERING IDENTITY, writes about criminalized women "rehabilitating" their identities.

Stories of teen sexting scandals, cyberbullying, and image-based sexual abuse have become commonplace fixtures of the digital age, with many adults struggling to identify ways to monitor young people's digital engagement. In When Rape Goes Viral, Anna Gjika argues that rather than focusing on survei

By Francine Banner, author of Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of SystemsWhat does it mean to be complicit?This question is at the heart of my book, Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems.My interest in the topic stems from years of practicing and

In This Place Called Prison offers a vivid account of religious life within an institution designed to punish. Rachel Ellis conducted a year of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women’s prison, talking with hundreds of incarcerated women, staff, and volunteers. Through their stories, Ellis