Richard M. Hough

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Public Administration Program Coordinator, Department of Administration and Law, University of West Florida.

Personal message: What a tremendous honor and opportunity to serve as an International Ambassador for the British Society of Criminology. The iterations of the Society over the past century and the contemporary contributions of its conferences and publications speak to the continued vibrancy of criminology in the U.K. and the Society’s influence globally. I have already made it common practice to speak of the developments that take place within the BSC and writings of the members. The importance of sharing the insights and knowledge of the BSC with our colleagues internationally is of great importance.

My background as both a practitioner with diverse experience in the U.S. criminal justice system, and researcher and teacher of university students, and trainer of law enforcement and corrections personnel, have given me an opportunity over four decades to critically assess and track trends and advances – as well as missteps – in America. Since my days at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, I have consciously included an international focus in my own work and in my facilitation of learning for others. I frequently conduct criminology and criminal justice topic briefings for public service professionals from around the world as part of the U. S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Presentations with U.K. colleagues at the last two annual BSC conferences were wonderful experiences and welcoming several members to the Homicide Research Working Group (HRWG) annual conferences. I am pleased to have recently joined the efforts of the Criminal Investigation Research Network (CIRN) based at the University of South Wales.

Email: rhough@uwf.edu

Recent activities: The two areas of interest that occupy much of my time are the study of criminal homicide and its investigation, and the use of force within the field of criminal justice. The former lead to co-authoring the text American Homicide with Dr. Kimberly McCorkle and published by SAGE, and the latter interest lead me to write the recently published text The Use of Force in Criminal Justice, published by Routledge. Also see a recent video presentation hosted by Calibre Press entitled ‘How Can You Mistake a Gun for a Taser?‘  I consult to numerous criminal justice agencies and often testify in the U.S. federal court system as an expert on the use of force, as well as police and corrections practices. I teach courses on policing, homicide, cold case investigations, the use of force, and public management.

The past half year of 2020 has been consequential. The global pandemic prevented the annual conference of the BSC and, quite sadly, my return to the U.K. to meet with friends and colleagues, as well as take part in presentations at the conference in Liverpool. Our inconveniences and personal disappointments are obviously of no great or lasting consequence measured against the suffering, loss of life, and still unknown impacts of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus and, here in the United States, the disjointed and less than effective response to the monumental health crisis. To further collaborations and communication between the criminology communities in the U.K. and U.S., I embarked in the Fall semester of 2019 on a journey that took me to speaking engagements at universities around the U.K. to have conversations with students and colleagues about two specific areas of my work, homicide investigations, and the use of force by police and other criminal justice personnel. There were so many insights and valuable talks, and several opportunities to continue important comparative work.

I remain committed to the British Society of Criminology, and to my many friends across its membership. I have reached out to a number of these to offer my service in any way to provide perspective on the freshly revisited ongoing scourge and tragedies of implicit and explicit bias, racism, and structural inequality in the U.S. My forty years in and around policing, and my teaching and training of officers and students in the various aspects of force usage by police in a Western democracy, feel even more relevant now – and increasingly urgent. The recorded killing of George Floyd (among others) not only gave 330 million people in this country pause to consider the role and response of their police, but, I hope, the will and momentum to consider so much more about unequal treatment. So many police and academic colleagues in the U.K. marveled (or scratched their heads), as I talked about the U.S. system of fifty separate states and 18,000 separate local-level law enforcement agencies, sized from one officer to 40,000. As a human and cultural diversity trainer for three decades, I was pleased to co-present a national seminar on implicit bias attended by some 600 police – but training alone is never the solution. Leadership is critical.

I repeat here my offer of a virtual conversation and presentation to your classes to any U.K. colleague who knows that such a perspective may benefit and spur further discussion within your own classrooms (virtual or not). Quite seriously, I am available and feel it a duty to appear by video and talk. My email is rhough@uwf.edu

I’m happy to help represent BSC in the United States and around the world and I look forward to some great conversations and collaborations.