Mark your calendars — Convocation is happening on Monday, August 31! This is your official welcome to the Rutgers-Newark community! Join us as we kick off the year with energy, pride, and a whole lot of Raider spirit. ❤️🖤

Dean Nancy La Vigne joins SiriusXM's Road Dog Trucking live today at 5:30pm ET. She'll join host Dan Ronan to discuss whether repeat speeders should be required to use speed limiters or Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology. Tune in at channel 146!

Two Rutgers SCJ PhD alums now lead Temple's Criminal Justice Department. Dr. Aunshul Rege (PhD '12) is Department Chair and runs the CARE Lab; Dr. Amarat Zaatut (PhD '16) is Graduate Chair. "We are fortunate to have two Rutgers alumni serving in key leadership roles," says Rege.

Kayla Blas starts as a full-time Probation Officer this summer. She completed SCJ's accelerated dual-degree master's and won the Director's Award for Practical and Professional Excellence. #AlumniSpotlight #RutgersSCJ #CriminalJustice

SCJ's Dr. Alex Gimenez-Santana brought the Newark Public Safety Collaborative's (NPSC) nationally recognized data-informed community engagement model to the national stage last week at the 2026 Community Violence Intervention Conference in Los Angeles.

New transfer students at Rutgers SCJ, join us in person today at 6pm at the Center for Law & Justice in Newark to meet the community before classes start. Register: go.rutgers.edu/scjtrinpersonjuly27 #RutgersSCJ #TransferStudents #CriminalJustice #RutgersNewark

Baltimore just opened applications for the second cohort of its Community Action Lab, a paid resident leadership program built in part with guidance from our own Newark Public Safety Collaborative (NPSC). www.baltimorecity.gov/mayor/news-m...

New first-year students: join us virtually today at 6pm to meet SCJ before your first day. Register: go.rutgers.edu/scjfyvirtualjuly20 #RutgersSCJ

School of Criminal Justice First Year Student Virtual Gathering

This event is exclusively for new first year students enrolling in the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice.

go.rutgers.edu

Crime and justice don't stop at any border. Neither does the commitment of our #RutgersSCJ students. From our 50th Anniversary Documentary:

Alum quote: Debbie Regan spent 30 years as a paralegal before discovering an unexpected second calling: research. Through the Newark Public Safety Collaborative, she picked up spatial analysis and financial crimes certifications, and just won SCJ's Director's Award for Scholarly Achievement.

Dr. Sara Wakefield's research traces how mass incarceration reaches families, not just individuals -- from her book Children of the Prison Boom to new 2024 work on how criminal legal system contact ripples between siblings. #FacultySpotlight #RutgersSCJ #CriminalJustice #Research #Sociology

New first-year students -- come meet us in person before your first day. The Rutgers School of Criminal Justice is hosting an in-person meet and greet today at 6:00pm at the Center for Law & Justice, 123 Washington Street in Newark. Register: go.rutgers.edu/scjfyinpersonjuly14

Meet your 2026-27 criminal Justice club executive board! So excited to have this group coordinating student activities and events for the coming year. Follow them on Instagram to stay up-to-date!

Congratulations to SCJ alumna Kishani Udugampola, Ph.D., on being named a Fulbright U.S. Scholar! She'll be working with the University of the Free State in South Africa on financial crime, compliance, and criminal justice. Incredibly proud of this achievement. Congratulations, Kishani!

Dr. Nerea Marteache (PhD '13) directs the Center for Criminal Justice Research at @csusb.bsky.social, where her research partners with @metrolinksocal.bsky.social to study passenger safety on commuter rail. 2022 Outstanding Community Engagement Award winner. #CriminalJustice #Research #RutgersNewark

Are you a transfer student? Join the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice for a virtual meet and greet on July 8 at 6:00pm -- a low-pressure way to connect with the community before your first day of classes. Register: go.rutgers.edu/scjtrvirtualjuly8

Meet Dr. Michael Ostermann, Professor at SCJ and Co-Director of our new CLEAR Institute. Institutional and community corrections, rehabilitation and reentry, and how they intersect with public policy are his primary research areas.

Whether it's Jody Miller studying gendered and racial violence, Nusret Sahin studying police trust, or Ebony Ruhland studying probation fees, the Rutgers SCJ is playing a role in better understanding our complicated country. Happy Independence Week, enjoy responsibly!

July is Disability Pride Month. People with mental health disabilities are 10x more likely to be incarcerated than to receive psychiatric care. Our jails became the country's largest mental health institutions, and SCJ research has spent decades investigating what we can do about it.

In the 1990s, former Dean Ronald Clarke and colleagues David Weisburd and Marcus Felson posited that crime wasn't something society simply had to respond to. It could be anticipated, interrupted, and prevented.

Anthony Braga (PhD '97) helped build focused deterrence -- now one of the most replicated gun violence reduction strategies in U.S. policing. From SCJ to @upenn.edu, and everywhere cities needed answers. #CriminalJustice #Criminology #GunViolence #CrimePolicy #SCJ

So proud of our own Dr. Todd Clear -- Emeritus Distinguished University Professor and NJ-STEP founder -- on receiving the ASC's 2026 Sutherland Award. A lifetime of work that moved the field. Congratulations, Todd!

Nancy La Vigne@nancylavigne.bsky.social · last mo.

Thrilled to share that Dr. Todd Clear was awarded the ASC's Edwin H. Sutherland Award, one of the field's highest honors. He found that overreliance on incarceration generates injustice and crime rather than reducing them. He grew NJ-STEP, raised $10M+ for policy, and mentored 40+ PhD students.

Congratulations to CCJ member @nancylavigne.bsky.social on her election as President of the @amersoccriminology.bsky.social!

Nancy La Vigne@nancylavigne.bsky.social · last mo.

I'm thrilled to share that I've been elected President of the American Society of Criminology. I'll be taking office in 2028 My priorities: listening to ALL ASC members, making ASC a stronger public voice for criminology, and deepening our commitment to international scholars

Miseka Diggs served 7 years under NJ mand. min. drug laws. She graduated from RU-N last month at 49. Her story is a clear argument for sentencing reform, and a reminder that every county prosecutor in NJ agrees, the research agrees, and the Legislature still hasn't moved. By Ted Sherman at NJ.com:

Even prosecutors think N.J.’s ‘war on drugs’ rules should be gone. Why aren’t they?

A state commission has called for sentencing changes to reduce racial disparities, but the Legislature has shown no willingness to act.

nj.com

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Jason Silver studies why people think about punishment the way they do, tracing how moral values, beliefs about evil, and character judgments shape criminal justice attitudes and policy. We're lucky to have him!!

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel spoke with SCJ Dean Nancy La Vigne about victim witness specialists helping gun violence survivors navigate a complex criminal justice system. Read it here: www.jsonline.com/story/news/c... #VictimServices #GunViolence #CriminalJustice #VictimAdvocacy

These women help victims get answers in a complex police system

The aim of the new staff is to keep in regular communication with shooting victims and their families.

jsonline.com

We're incredible proud of @nancylavigne.bsky.social for being elected President of the American Society of Criminology! So excited to see all that she'll achieve alongside the field's best scholars and professionals

Nancy La Vigne@nancylavigne.bsky.social · last mo.

I'm thrilled to share that I've been elected President of the American Society of Criminology. I'll be taking office in 2028 My priorities: listening to ALL ASC members, making ASC a stronger public voice for criminology, and deepening our commitment to international scholars

I'm thrilled to share that I've been elected President of the American Society of Criminology. I'll be taking office in 2028 My priorities: listening to ALL ASC members, making ASC a stronger public voice for criminology, and deepening our commitment to international scholars

The Newark Public Safety Collaborative: a Rutgers SCJ anchor initiative that partnered with the Newark Mayor's Office and more than 45 community organizations to address crime where it concentrates

Alum spotlight: Dr. Ntasha Bhardwaj, PhD '23. Her research asks what the field has been slow to consider: how does gender inequality shape fear of crime in South Asia? She also co-founded the South Asian Institute of Crime and Justice Studies, creating a hub for a whole area of scholarship.