What I Do #9: Colleen Eren, professor of sociology and criminal justice
What I Do, a weekly Explaining Crime series, features a single person in the crime content space and their answers to a set series of questions about what they do. Explaining Crime is an independent newsletter that helps you explain crime to your audience.
What I Do #9: Colleen Eren
Where are you based?
I'm based in New York, in the United States.
What do you do?
I am a professor of sociology and criminal justice at William Paterson University, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Reason Foundation. This means that I teach undergraduates in a range of criminology classes, I do research and publish on various subjects related to the criminal justice system and criminal justice policy.
Who is your audience?
When I write about policy and society, my audience are well-informed readers and advocates who I'd like to think about the implications of a certain law or practice. I also have written a textbook on the Supreme Court's landmark decisions and its impact on social institutions specifically for undergraduates.
Who or what are the most useful sources of information in your work?
The National Incidence-Based Reporting System, the National Crime Victims Survey (for crime data), peer-reviewed criminological journals, reports by various think tanks and advocacy groups help with data gathering. I also typically conduct in-depth interviews to understand policies, systems, practices, and politics around an issue. Quorum is also a great tool for tracking policy.
What’s your process?
The sociologist Arlie Hoschchild says that the impetus for research is " a little mental itch"--something that is a paradox, or bothers you and makes you hungry for an answer. So I write, honestly, and research about what makes me curious for an answer. Whether that is why the First Step Act passed, or why criminal justice students want a degree in that subject, or about the Bernie Madoff case and its sociological relevance--it always starts with genuine curiousity. From then, I refine the research questions, devise a method that is best suited to answering that question, conduct a literature review to see what's already been said about that issue by others, and begin research and writing.
What’s the key to getting through to your audience?
I think as an academic, there is a tendency to want to make one's writing very theoretical and abstract. I avoid that. I think you need to write in a way that draws in people to also be fascinated by your subject and make it relevant to their lives.
How do you distribute or otherwise share your work?
My peer-reviewed work are available through library databases, the books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and some of my more opinion-based policy pieces are published in easily accessible media like Discourse Magazine, RealClear Politics, or New York Times.
What’s something you wish people understood about crime, justice, or another related topic?
Most Americans think crime is increasing year-to-year, not matter what the crime trends. I would like them to be able to locate crime data (here is a place to go for that) from the FBI and have a better-informed opinion based on evidence rather than media hype or fear mongering.
Why do you do this work?
I was originally involved in criminal justice reform advocacy. I believe that our current system has vast areas for improvement that can make communities safer and reduce harm, and I enjoy presenting ideas that can have people evaluate these alternatives.
What was your path to doing this?
I worked in nonprofit advocacy during graduate school. When I got my PhD in sociology, I obtained a tenure-track position at the City University of New York in a Criminal Justice department, and now am an associate professor at William Paterson University.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out who wants to do what you do?
Get experience in public policy first, so you can obtain steady employment before earning a PhD and entering the tenure track, which right now is difficult to obtain a job in, as only about 25-35% of jobs in academia are tenure track.
What book, podcast, documentary, or anything else would you recommend to people reading this?
I'd recommend my book Reform Nation: The First Step Act and the movement to End Mass Incarceration and my interview with Nick Gillespie of Reason here on his podcast
Who would you like to see featured in a future What I Do?
M. Chris Fabricant
What do you do in your off-time to decompress from such heavy subject matter?
I run ultramarathons, play the piano, and watch stand up comedy.
And that’s What I Do for this week! Do you have any suggestions for who else you’d like me ask these questions of? Let me know, and I’ll see if I can get them!