Peacemaking and Crime: Advocating for Reform on the Internet.

Source: (2008) In, John F. Wozniak, et. al, editors. Transformative Justice: Critical and Peacemaking Themes Influenced by Richard Quinney. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. pp. 223-230.

The Internet has broadened the community of scholars that is available to peacemaking criminologists, something that can be said about any field. In the somewhat distant past, it was necessary to be at Harvard, Oxford, or Princeton in order to have access to the colleagues and library resources necessary to do cutting-edge work. Later, with the advent of telephones, faxes, and interlibrary loan programs, it was possible for scholars to communicate ideas from different cities or countries. Now, the internet has taken communication to an entirely different level, making physical proximity almost unnecessary for research. Today, colleagues sitting in adjacent offices often prefer to use email rather than venture into each other’s offices to discuss collaborative work. Although it is an understatement to claim that the Internet has revolutionized communication, it is beyond the scope of this essay to explore this trend completely. Instead, the goal here is to relate the personal experience of one humble scholar’s attempt to connect with like-minded others. (excerpt)