CANCELED: The 2020 Mastrofski Lecture featuring Professor Rod K. Brunson
Monday, March 16, 2020 11:15 AM to 12:00 PM EDT
Fenwick Library, #2001
UPDATE: In light of increasing concerns regarding the imminent spread of COVID-19 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, George Mason University is taking a number of precautionary measures to limit exposure and minimize risk. In accordance with CDC and WHO recommendations to limit events and gatherings in order to reduce risk, we are canceling this event.
We regret any inconvenience and disappointment this may cause. The health and safety of our community is, and will always be, our top priority.
Please refer to the Mason coronavirus website for updates and further communications regarding Mason’s plans and procedures.
Join us for the 2020 Mastrofski Lecture featuring Professor Rod K. Brunson for his talk: "Racial Profiling and Street-level Drug Enforcement: Findings from the Block (and the Ivory Tower)".
ROD K. BRUNSON is the Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., Professor of Public Life in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (and the Department of Political Science) at Northeastern University. Prof. Brunson has received numerous professional awards in recognition of his distinguished body of scholarly work, most recently, American Society of Criminology, Fellow. Furthermore, Dr. Brunson co-directs the Racial Democracy Crime and Justice Network, an organization of social scientists conducting research on crime, inequality, and the criminal justice system.
Professor Brunson’s expertise centers on police-community relations, youth violence, and evidence-based criminal justice policy. He has consistently called for effective crime reduction strategies that do not result in racially disparate treatment of minority citizens and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Dr. Brunson’s scholarship appears in the Annual Review of Sociology, British Journal of Criminology, City & Community, Criminology, Criminology & Public Policy, Evaluation Review, Justice Quarterly, and Urban Affairs Review.
Prof. Brunson will be presenting on “Racial Profiling and Street-level Drug Enforcement: Findings from the Block (and the Ivory Tower).” He will be advocating that dimensions of urban policing require honest and thoughtful public discourse beyond simplistic explanations commonly used to dismiss police wrongdoing. Aggressive policing strategies have contributed to volatile neighborhood environments, profoundly unraveling citizen trust and exacerbating unfairness in the criminal justice system. Objective examinations of contemporary policing are becoming increasingly polarized, unjustly characterizing meaningful critiques of misguided crime-control strategies as unpatriotic and anti-law enforcement. Given this backdrop, Dr. Brunson offers a nuanced analysis of Black citizen-police experiences, one that humanizes both parties – a dimension sorely missing from most current discussions of tenuous police-minority citizen relations.
The Mastrofski Lecture is an annual event that honors Emeritus Professor Stephen Mastrofski, the first Chair of Mason's Department of Criminology, Law and Society.
