About Us
This website is a project created and maintained by a professor and two students at the City University of New York doctoral program in criminal justice. Diana Gordon, the professor, has taught political science and criminal justice for twenty-five years and has a particular interest in community-based dispute resolution. Her book about criminal justice reform in South Africa after apartheid, "Transformation and Trouble: Crime, Justice and Participation in Democratic South Africa", was published in 2006. Meredith Dank, who is particularly interested in the experiences of homeless and delinquent youth around the world, will complete her Ph.D. at CUNY in 2008. Julie Viollaz, who is from Paris and has done research in Africa, is a first-year student in the CUNY doctoral program.
The website stems from two simple ideas:
- Believing that criminal justice, at least at the local level, is too important to leave to the professionals, we explore and encourage responsible citizen efforts to aid them and to supplement official crime prevention and control with grass-roots projects that promote peaceful communities.
- Believing that participation in an effective and legitimate democracy goes beyond voting in free and fair elections, we support the development of more active citizenship in countries that are engaged in a process of democratization.