Citation
Ruttenberg, J. (2003), "40th Academy Of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS)", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 20 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2003.23920dac.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited
40th Academy Of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS)
Judy Ruttenberg
The theme of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) held in Boston, MA from March 4-8, 2003 was "The globalization of crime and criminal justice". With considerable attention to international criminal justice issues in general, there were many panels and discussions specifically devoted to the aftermath of September 11 – from the USA PATRIOT Act and domestic civil liberties to global anti-terrorism efforts. The conference, which included more than 300 programs, drew some 1,200 participants from criminal justice academia and practice. There was also a significant student presence. Major criminology publishers were represented in the modest exhibit hall, promoting new books both for course adoption and for professional practice and training.
Multiple sessions and formats (roundtables, workshops, and panel presentations) ran concurrently. Among the interests of the various ACJS sections (community college, corrections, information and public policy, international, juvenile justice, law, judicial processes, and human rights, and minorities and women, police, security/crime prevention), the topic of corrections was perhaps best represented throughout. Particular emphases included prisoner reentry, capital punishment, and "special populations" in corrections (such as the elderly, women, juveniles, and the mentally retarded). In one rather lively panel on prison policy, the editor of Prison Journal, Rosemary L. Gido, delivered a paper on "Control units" (or supermaxes) written by a Pennsylvania inmate.
One of the conference's highlights from the perspective of the library community was the report of an exciting documentation project out of the Department of Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany Libraries. As part of SUNY Albany's Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI), a recently established national research center, the University's special collections librarians are actively building a repository of historical death penalty research materials. One particular focus will be the papers of both pro- and anti-death penalty activists.
In addition to the programs, the conference included association business meetings, as well as several professional development seminars and a career fair featuring employers from state, local and federal law enforcement and other agencies.
The conference hotel was conveniently located on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), or T, near the historic Boston Public Library, and adjacent to upscale restaurants and shopping on Newberry Street. Extracurricular activities at the conference included a tour of nearby Northeastern University.
The next ACJS Meeting will be held in Las Vegas, NV, from March 9-14, 2004.
Judy Ruttenberg(jruttenb@lib.uci.edu) is the Research Librarian for African-American Studies and Criminology, Law and Society at the Irvine Libraries, University of California, Irvine, California, USA.