Weisheit to present distinguished professorship lecture Tuesday Illinois State Report Weisheit to present distinguished professorship lecture Tuesday Ralph Weisheit, distinguished professor of Criminal Justice Sciences, will deliver his Distinguished Professorship Lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 2, in the Old Main Room of Bone Student Center.
Admission is free and open to the public.
A reception in Weisheit's honor will be held immediately following the lecture program. Weisheit and his colleagues have conducted research on rural crime in America and found, despite assumptions to the contrary, that rural America is alive and well and that examining rural crime can provide insight into crime and community. One quarter of the U.S. population today, he points out, lives in rural areas. Weisheit asserts that most people recognize that crime is not a series of isolated incidents, but occurs in patterns that reflect the family, the community in which that family lives, the society in which that community is situated and even global developments. Too often this basic idea is forgotten, he said, and in the mind of the public, crime is reduced to the actions of a few individuals acting in isolation.