Experts Available for Civil Liberties/Social Injustice Comments

Newswise — Matthew Robinson is the author of "Death Nation: The Experts Explain American Capital Punishment." The book reports the opinions of scholarly death penalty experts as to whether the death penalty achieves its goals, is plagued by serious problems, and is an appropriate punishment for convicted murderers. The book also offers a review of the latest empirical evidence on issues such as whether executions deter murder, achieve justice for crime victims, are ever used against the innocent, and are plagued by other serious problems such as racial and social class bias.

Robinson is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science/Criminal Justice at Appalachian State University. His areas of expertise include Civil Liberties and the Patriot Act, Death Penalty, War on Drugs, Social Class Bias in American Capital Punishment, Racial Profiling

He also co-authored "Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics" which argues that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) misuses statistics to justify continuation of the drug war in spite of their own data which show the drug war has consistently failed to achieve its goals.

Robinson also wrote "Justice Blind? Ideals and Realities of American Criminal Justice," which compares t ideals with the realities of criminal justice today and provides a critical interpretation of the role of race, ethnicity, and gender in criminal justice.

Barbara Zaitzow, a professor in the Department of Political Science/Criminal Justice at Appalachian State University, researches women in prison, alternatives to incarceration, female criminality and social control techniques used with women in prison. She is co-editor of "Women in Prison: Gender and Social Control," which looks at is how gender differences shape prison policies, how gender identity and roles shape women's adaptation and resistance to prison culture and control, and how gender stereotypes continue to affect the treatment and opportunities of incarcerated women.