About Us
This website is a project created and maintained by a professor and student at the City University of New York doctoral program in Criminal Justice. Professor Diana Gordon 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. Alexandra Hiropoulos is from Greece and is a first-year student in the CUNY doctoral program. She will be conducting research in South Africa over the summer.
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.