Background
Richard Alan Wright was born on January 16, 1953, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. He is the son of E. Weldon and Ruth W. (Monger) Wright.
James Madison University
Ohio University
Kansas State University
McPherson College
University of Scranton
University of Missouri
Georgia State University
(This comprehensive examination of the effectiveness of pr...)
This comprehensive examination of the effectiveness of prisons is virtually alone in showing that prisons are moderately effective in achieving specific and general deterrence and collective and selective incapacitation. Wright provides evidence which defends prisons as important social institutions and argues that noninterventionist alternative measures are less likely to prevent crime than conventional imprisonment policies. He also offers sentencing recommendations that may maximize the effectiveness of prisons as agents of social control. This up-to-date assessment is required reading for students, teachers, policymakers, and practitioners in corrections, penology, and criminal justice.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0313279268/?tag=2022091-20
1993
(When we think about young people dealing drugs, we tend t...)
When we think about young people dealing drugs, we tend to picture it happening on urban streets, in disadvantaged, crime-ridden neighborhoods. But drugs are used everywhere―even in upscale suburbs and top-tier high schools―and teenage users in the suburbs tend to buy drugs from their peers, dealers who have their own culture and code, distinct from their urban counterparts. In Code of the Suburb, Scott Jacques and Richard Wright offer a fascinating ethnography of the culture of suburban drug dealers. Drawing on fieldwork among teens in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, they carefully parse the complicated code that governs relationships among buyers, sellers, police, and other suburbanites. That code differs from the one followed by urban drug dealers in one crucial respect: whereas urban drug dealers see violent vengeance as crucial to status and security, the opposite is true for their suburban counterparts. As Jacques and Wright show, suburban drug dealers accord status to deliberate avoidance of conflict, which helps keep their drug markets more peaceful―and, consequently, less likely to be noticed by law enforcement. Offering new insight into both the little-studied area of suburban drug dealing, and, by extension, the more familiar urban variety, Code of the Suburb will be of interest to scholars and policy makers alike. When we think about young people dealing drugs, we tend to picture it happening on urban streets, in disadvantaged, crime-ridden neighborhoods. But drugs are used everywhere―even in upscale suburbs and top-tier high schools―and teenage users in the suburbs tend to buy drugs from their peers, dealers who have their own culture and code, distinct from their urban counterparts. In Code of the Suburb, Scott Jacques and Richard Wright offer a fascinating ethnography of the culture of suburban drug dealers. Drawing on fieldwork among teens in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, they carefully parse the complicated code that governs relationships among buyers, sellers, police, and other suburbanites. That code differs from the one followed by urban drug dealers in one crucial respect: whereas urban drug dealers see violent vengeance as crucial to status and security, the opposite is true for their suburban counterparts. As Jacques and Wright show, suburban drug dealers accord status to deliberate avoidance of conflict, which helps keep their drug markets more peaceful―and, consequently, less likely to be noticed by law enforcement. Offering new insight into both the little-studied area of suburban drug dealing, and, by extension, the more familiar urban variety, Code of the Suburb will be of interest to scholars and policy makers alike.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/022616411X/?tag=2022091-20
2015
Richard Alan Wright was born on January 16, 1953, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. He is the son of E. Weldon and Ruth W. (Monger) Wright.
Wright graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1973. He then obtained a master's degree from Ohio University in 1975 and his doctorate from Kansas State University in 1988.
Wright started his career as an assistant professor at McPherson College in 1979. He remained there till 1987 when he started working at Kansas State University. Two years later he went to the University of Scranton and since 1990, he worked as a professor of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri in St. Louis.
In 2014, after more than 20 years of service, he retired from the department as a Curators’ Professor and joined the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University (GSU) as Professor and Chair.
Currently, Wright is collaborating with colleagues at UMSL, American University, and GSU on research that examines the effect of the declining use of cash on street crime and drug-related deaths.
(This comprehensive examination of the effectiveness of pr...)
1993(When we think about young people dealing drugs, we tend t...)
2015Wright is a member of the American Sociological Association, American Society of Criminology, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and Phi Kappa Phi.
Wright married Sharon Dresden Bowman on May 24, 1975. The couple has 3 children: William E., Emerson T. and Austin C.