Biography
Dr. Paul R. Schupp is a Western New York native. He returned to join the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice as a full-time faculty member. He is proud to be a tenured member of a department with colleagues committed to scholarship, teaching, and service. He regards program of study and its Vincentian Mission to exemplify liberal arts education. Applying social science to current criminal justice experience and debates, the program contributes to the improvement of criminal justice professions and practice in an evolving democracy. While dedicating his scholarship, teaching, and service to this vision, Dr. Schupp hopes to live long enough to see the Buffalo Bills win their first Super Bowl.
Focus of Teaching
- CRJ 265 Principles of Justice – The course allows students to place contemporary controversies and reform debates in context by looking at criminal justice and the response to crime through several theoretical lenses. By studying contemporary scholarship and topical issues, students become more informed about criminal justice practice and principles of justice.
- CRJ 270 Corrections and Imprisonment – The course examines various challenges and reforms of imprisonment by studying the prison as a social institution. While imprisonment relates to crime and its control in complex ways, it reflects and impacts evolving social relationships. The study of mass incarceration as a social phenomenon is centered.
- CRJ 500 System-wide Issues in Criminal Justice – The course serves as a graduate-level introductory course. Students take a broad view of criminal justice as crime control to understand how politics and ideology create challenges for criminal justice practice. Theory and research are considered to explore the potential of evidence-based crime control policy in a democracy.
- CRJ 530 Professional Ethics in Criminal Justice – The course examines contemporary ethical dilemmas and debates in criminal justice professions. The course encourages current and future professionals to recognize ethical dilemmas and appreciate the importance of ethical decision making.
- CRJ 565 Corporate Crime and Elite Deviance–The course examines theory and research on corporate crime and elite deviance. Causes and consequences of corporate crime are studied along with the challenges of controlling and prosecuting them are also examined.
Current Research
Since completing his doctoral research on mass incarceration and the legitimation crises in America since the late-1960s, Dr. Schupp’s scholarly interest has emphasized the sociology of punishment and imprisonment. He considers how mass incarcerations insects with evolving controversies and reform debates. Dr. Schupp’s scholarly interest includes theoretical and empirical study of penal justifications. His current research and scholarship focuses evidence-based policy in probation practice and the causes and correlates of probation violations and revocations. Dr. Schupp takes a scholarly interest in how theory, research, and experience inform bail reform measures such as New York State’s 2019 bail reform law.
Current Involvement
Dr. Paul R. Schupp is the current Niagara University Institutional Review Board, Chair.
Educational Background
- Doctor of Philosophy – Criminology & Criminal Justice–University at Albany, SUNY
- Master of Arts – Criminology & Criminal Justice–University at Albany, SUNY
- Bachelor of Science – Neurobiology & Behavior–Cornell University