Rothe Wins Prestigious Critical Criminologist of the Year Award

Dawn Rothe, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, was awarded the Critical Criminologist of the Year award by the American Society of Criminology at its annual meeting last month in St. Louis.

Rothe's areas of research include crimes of the state, such as crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and other massive human rights violations. More recently, she has been researching transnational crime, most notably, that of human trafficking of body parts and the causes that bring about and sustain authoritarian regimes, which is a natural extension of her previous work in the realm of state crimes.

"Dr. Rothe is a uniquely productive scholar who, in addition to numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, has already published two books ["The International Criminal Court: Symbolic Gestures and the Generation of Global Social Control" (Lexington Publishers, 2006) and "Blood, Power and Bedlam: Violations of International Criminal Law in Post-Colonial Africa" (Peter Lang Publishing, 2008)], with two more under contract and expected out in 2009," remarked Randy Gainey, chair of the sociology and criminal justice department.

"Her works reflect her critical passion for social justice and hatred of injustice, and her achievements are many. She was clearly the most appropriate choice for this prestigious award," said Gainey.

The American Society of Criminology is an international organization concerned with the etiology, prevention, control and treatment of crime and delinquency on a scholarly, scientific and professional level. The Critical Criminologist of the Year award, given by the society's Critical Criminology Division, honors a person for distinguished accomplishments in scholarship, teaching or service in a recent year or years.