Criminal Justice Professor: When It Comes to Our Personal Safety, We Have a Lot of Work to Do
October 12, 2015
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Writing for Inside Higher Ed, University of Baltimore Professor of Criminal Justice Jeffrey Ian Ross says that campuses and other public spaces can be made safer if Americans are willing to pay the price.
"[W]e willingly, if not happily, endure security checkpoints in certain situations, while, at other times, we are totally on our own—in a movie theater or college classroom or at a street party. Why have security in one public place and not in another? Is it just the cost?
...
"The new threshold has to be this: wherever people gather, in any number, for any reason, any duration and in any place, their security is paramount. Elementary and secondary schools are obvious sites. But we must include libraries, houses of worship, retail spaces and more. We have to take our willingness to pass through those gates—and let that acceptance go forward as far as possible. Otherwise, the idea of feeling safe, of getting through a school day or a church service alive and well is, sadly, not realistic."
Read the Inside Higher Ed op-ed.
Learn more about Prof. Ross and the School of Criminal Justice, part of UB's College of Public Affairs.