Faculty / Jennifer Wood

Jennifer Wood is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple. She earned a bachelor's degree in Criminology at the University of Ottawa in 1994 and received both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Toronto in 1995 and 2000, respectively. Prior to joining Temple, Jennifer served as a Fellow for the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University.

The focus of Jennifer's research is on trends in the delivery of security within the broader context of shifts in governance. She adopts the view that what happens in the security arena provides a window to broader patterns in how human beings, and the collective arrangements they form, work to shape our social world and individual conduct within it. Her recent book, co-authored with Clifford Shearing (Imagining Security, 2007, Willan Publishing) develops this perspective, emphasizing that security is produced as much by private entities and well resourced communities as it is by state institutions like the police. They put forward the concept of 'nodal governance' as an analytical approach to mapping this complexity and assessing its implications for democratic principles like equity and access to justice.

Jennifer's scholarship has also focused on issues of organizational and cultural change within public police organizations. During her time in Australia, she coordinated the 'Nexus Policing' Project in conjunction with Victoria Police. This action research project was designed to explore the possibilities of different forms of interface between police and non-police actors in managing a range of social problems.

She is also interested in exploring the connections between security and public health, and in particular the ways in which laws and law enforcement practices contribute to healthy behaviors and environments. Jennifer is a Methods Core member of the National Program Office for Public Health Law Research funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and directed by Professor Scott Burris, Temple University Beasley School of Law. She is also conducting research involving the Philadephia Police Department on a new project entitled "Building evidence about police officer roles in the management of violence and other public health problems." Her collaborators are Dr. Elizabeth Groff, Dr. Jerry Ratcliffe and graduate students Travis Taniguchi, Lallen Hart-Johnson, and Evan Sorg.

Jennifer has published two co-edited books (Democracy, Society and the Governance of Security (Cambridge, 2006; co-with Benoit Dupont) and Fighting Crime Together: The Challenges of Policing and Security Networks (University of New South Wales Press, 2006; with Jenny Fleming).  A link to Jennifer's CV can be found at the top right of this page.