Expert on Global Crime Trends to be First Beto Chair Lecturer

A criminologist whose recent work has focused on national and international macro-level crime trends will be the first of three George J. Beto Chair Lecturers who will speak at the Sam Houston State University Criminal Justice Center in 2005.

Gary LaFree, professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, will make two presentations on Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the Kerper Courtroom.

His first presentation will take place at 9:30 a.m. and will address “Developing a Criminological Agenda for the Study of Terrorism and Homeland Security.” His second presentation will be at 2 p.m. when he will discuss “Crime and Democracy.”

LaFree has authored a number of publications in the social sciences. Among his works are a 2000 edited book titled The Nature of Crime and a 1998 book titled Losing Legitimacy: Street Crime and the Decline of Social Institutions in America.

LaFree has chaired the Crime, Law and Deviance section of the American Sociological Association and the international division of the American Society of Criminology. He is a member of the H. F. Guggenheim Foundation’s research board and is a fellow of the National Consortium for Violence Research.

He is currently a co-developer of a terrorism data base that contains 70,000 events that took place around the world between 1970 and 1997. In addition to a series of research projects on terrorism his current projects include studies of U. S. crime trends by race, the impact of political legitimacy and economic stress on world homicide rates, and connections between childhood schooling practices and incarceration risk.

Since 1981 the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University has brought distinguished scholars to campus to speak on relevant and timely topics of concern to students, faculty and practitioners.

Other Beto Chair Lecturers include professors Jeff Ferrell from Texas Christian University and Byron Johnson of Baylor University. Their presentations are scheduled for early April.

The lectures are open to the public and free of admission charge.

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Media Contact: Julia May
February 11, 2005
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