Areas of Expertise

• Criminological theory
• Juvenile delinquency
• Sex offending
• Juvenile justice

Key Findings

• Reconceptualization recognizes both general deterrence (the effects of legal punishment on the public/potential committers of crime) and specific deterrence (the effects of legal punishments based on experience of punishment). MORE
• Reconceptualization treats punishment avoidance (the act of avoiding punishment by those who have committed crimes) as its own form of punishment. MORE
• Reconceptualization is compatible with the observational and experiential learning theories and both types of deterrence. MORE
• The extent and meaning of diversion for juveniles in the juvenile justice system is unclear. It’s meaning ranges from juvenile court’s dismissal of cases to lower sanctions. MORE

Biography

Mark Stafford, Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas State University, is an expert in criminological theory, juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice.

Stafford has held faculty positions at Texas State University, Washington State University and the University of Texas at Austin. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He also served as the IEAT-FORD Chair of Criminality, Violence, and Public Policy at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

He has been published in numerous academic journals, including Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency and Journal of Criminal Justice.

Stafford received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Arizona and B.A. in Sociology from Southern Methodist University.