Philip W. Harris

I did my graduate work at the School of Criminal Justice of the University at Albany (SUNY) and have been at Temple University since 1980. I trace my interest in criminology back to my experience as a military intelligence agent. After graduate school, I spent four years as a juvenile correctional administrator in Montreal. Since then, my teaching and research have centered on juvenile justice. I'm particularly interested in learning why some delinquent kids continue to commit crimes and what programs help them refocus their lives on positive pursuits. My most recent publications focus on ways in which the neighborhoods kids live in influence their choices of what types of offenses to commit. This place-based approach to looking at crime is growing in influence within criminology. In an effort to get out of the ivory tower, I serve on a state juvenile justice advisory group and provide consultation and technical assistance to police departments, courts, juvenile delinquency programs, probation departments, and professional organizations.