Colleen Eren, Ph.D., is full professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at William Paterson University whose research and public writing/speaking centers around her dual interests in criminal justice policy and academic freedom. She is a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, Reason Foundation, and Heterodox Academy, as well as an expert at the Crime and Justice Research Alliance. Colleen is the author of four books, Reform-Nation: The First Step Act and The Movement to End Mass Incarceration , The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions on U.S. Institutions, and Bernie Madoff and the Crisis: The Public Trial of Capitalism, as well as a book of poetry, Rip Currents. She is a frequent commentator on social issues, appearing in print, including the New York Times, television, including Washington Journal, documentaries, and podcasts.
Prior to entering academia, she was Director of Organizing at New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, which led a successful statewide campaign to end capital punishment. She is vice president of the board of New Hour for Women and Children, which helps women in reentry. She lives in Huntington, New York.
"Reform Nation is an invaluable and timely gift. This lively, behind-the scenes narrative brilliantly documents the emergence of a broad, bipartisan, and highly effective justice reform coalition. Energized by the leadership of justice-impacted individuals, this coalition brings together business leaders, philanthropists, civil rights advocates, religious organizations and strange-bedfellow politicians. By comparing this political development with other social movements, and contrasting this consensus with the realities of our deeply divided democracy, Eren elevates her narrative to that rare scholarly voice that speaks to the challenges of the moment. Reform Nation offers reasons for hope and caution at a time when our forward momentum faces new winds of opposition. This book should serve as a new guide for the justice reform movement in the next chapter of a long struggle."
—Jeremy Travis, Senior Fellow at the Justice Lab at Columbia University, President Emeritus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
"Bernie Madoff and the Crisis is a brief, engaging book that reminds readers about the complexity of social and economic problems and the mistake in simplifying them and thinking that criminal law alone can resolve them."
—David Schultz, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
"Bernie Madoff and the Crisis is an engaging, insightful and thought-provoking book. Its theoretical lens and empirical design should inspire future research on social reactions to white-collar crime, also of the more mundane kind. The book will be appealing to a wide readership."
—Aleksandra Jordanoska, British Journal of Criminology
"Eren provides the first investigation of why the crimes of Wall Street and Madoff—though economically and legally dissimilar—were culturally inseparable to the public. Steeped in the voices of reporters, regulators, and Bernie himself, this book is a major contribution to the study of white-collar crime."
—Gregg Barak, Eastern Michigan University, author of Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding
"Eren uses massive amounts of media commentary and interviews—with journalists and Madoff himself—to reveal salient points about the contemporary economy, society, and its demonology. An easy read, and an informative one as we continue to sift through the ashes of the financial crisis and our societal stance on white collar crime."
—Michael Levi, Cardiff University and author of The Phantom Capitalists and Regulating Fraud
"There is important primary data here and a creative analysis. Eren makes a notable contribution to the literature on financial crime, as well as our understanding of the role that the Madoff case played during an unfolding financial crisis."
—Kitty Calavita, University of California, Irvine, author of Big Money Crime
"Eren crafts a narrative of Bernie Madoff's crimes as a sweeping comment on our society at large, which created and upheld the kill-or-be-killed finance ethos, and thereby produced the twenty-first century version of a Wall Street serial killer."
—Erin Arvedlund, author of Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff
"Eren's book is a masterful account of how grassroots activism on a cause that very few people really cared about blossomed into a win for not just better treatment of people convicted of certain crimes but a better use of tax dollars. She blends original interviews with major players in the reform movement with great storytelling and a sociological framework that illuminates the complexities of all reform efforts."
—Nick Gillespie, Reason
"Reform Nation is well-timed for the current moment in criminal justice reform. Colleen Eren captures the political and social dynamics of recent years and lays out a compelling set of issues and challenges for the reform movement moving forward."
—Marc Mauer, Senior Advisor, The Sentencing Project
"A critical look behind the scenes at the way 'criminal justice reform' has blossomed into not just a movement but also, at times, a kind of industry. Eren's book is vital to our understanding of how change happens—and doesn't."
—Baz Dreisinger, author, Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World