Diana Rickard
Associate Professor
Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice
EMAIL: drickard@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-660
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 220-8266
Diana Rickard is a sociologist studying crime issues and society. She is currently focused on the way crime entertainment shapes our views of criminal justice, and is writing about documentary and wrongful conviction. Her recent book with New York University Press provides a close reading of several popular and influential contemporary documentary series about wrongful convictions.
Diana Rickard is also the author of Sex Offenders, Stigma, and Social Control (Rutgers University Press, 2016). She has taught introduction to criminal justice, criminology, corrections, crime and justice in the urban community, deviance, sociology of law, juvenlie justice, and violence and society. Previous appointments include teaching at Queensborough Community College and University of San Francisco. Her teaching methods utilize various writing techniques and focus on close readings of academic texts, incorporating sociological perspectives addressing race, class, gender, and social control.
She has been interviewed for New Books in Sociology, Organized Crime and Punishment, and The American Bar Association Journal podcast.
Expertise
Sociology of Popular Culture, Critical Criminology, Sociology of Punishment, Deviance and Identity, Cultural Criminology, Urban Ethnography, Sex Crimes.
Degrees
- Ph.D. Graduate Center, City University of New York, Sociology.
- M.F.A. The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University, Writing and Poetics.
- B.A. Bard College, Anthropology.
Courses Taught
- Criminal Justice is the field that studies formal social control. This course covers the processing of crime by agents of formal control (police, courts, and institutional corrections). The general focus is on understanding the complex interactions of structures and agents in the system. Of particular concern are discretion and diversity in law enforcement, due process in criminal courts, and the punishment-rehabilitation dichotomy in corrections. The ultimate goal is to provide a critical foundation that prepares students for the challenges of a career in criminal justice.
- This is an introductory and foundational course in the study of crime and justice. It is designed to introduce students to the various historical and contemporary theories and empirical research used to understand deviant and criminal behavior. This course takes a critical approach to the study of the definition and measurement of crime, as well as applications of these theories to practice and in policy. Offending and victimization, as these relate to specific crime types (i.e., white collar crime, violent crime, sex crime, drug related crimes, etc.) will be explored. Prerequisite: SOC 100
- This course examines the history of criminal punishment in Western society, emphasizing the United States. The course highlights social forces (political, religious, economic, and technological) shaping punishment; reviews common theories (deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, incapacitation, and restoration) and examines how theory relates to policy. The course takes a critical approach to correctional systems and policies by considering disparities and structural inequalities. Empirical evidence is used to examine contemporary crises of punishment (i.e., mass incarceration, school-to-prison pipeline) as well as prison culture, staffing, privatization, and prisoner civil rights. Alternatives to traditional punishment, especially restorative justice models, are explored. Prerequisite: CRJ 101
- This course takes a critical approach to the study of crime and justice in urban settings. Course materials examine contemporary crime-related issues that affect urban communities within a historical and sociological context. The course highlights the intersections of deviant behavior and the criminal justice system within the structures of class, race, gender, and power inequalities. Topics explored may include racial profiling, juvenile delinquency, media representations of crime, policing, the war on drugs, and prisoner re-entry.
Prerequisite: CRJ 101 and CRJ 102
Research and Projects
Publications
- Rickard, D. (2023) The New True Crime: How the Rise of Serialized Storytelling is Transforming Innocence, New York University Press.
- Rickard, D. (2022) The Devil Resides in Comfort: Constructs of Evil in Contemporary True Crime Stories, Journal of Popular Culture, 55(6).
- Rickard, D. (2022) Truth and Doubt: Questioning Legal Outcomes in True Crime Documentaries, Law and Humanities, 16 (2).
- Rickard, D. (2016) Sex Offenders, Stigma, and Social Control, Rutgers University Press
- Rickard, D. (2015) Masculinity & Medicalization: Gender & Vocabularies of Motive in the Narrative of a Sex Offender, Feminism & Psychology, 25(2).
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
- 2020 PSC-CUNY Research Award.
- 2013 Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, CUNY.
