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Criminal justice professor aims to make change |
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
by LINDSAY CRAVEN
Lifestyles Reporter
Dr. Matthew B. Robinson has impacted Boone for the last 11 years.
Robinson is an associate professor of criminal justice and criminology at Appalachian State University.
In his short time with Appalachian and Boone, he has made a presentation of his findings about the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C., submitted a major resolution to the Patriot Act, and had it passed by the Town of Boone, and still manages to raise a family.
Robinson was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in 1970.
He attended Florida State University and has earned a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree in criminology and criminal justice.
“I
went to college and got interested in criminology and criminal justice
and couldn’t find a job I really liked, so I went to graduate school
and ended up with a Ph.D. I took my first job at Appalachian State in
1997, and I’ve been here ever since,” Robinson said. “I’ve loved it
here from the first time I saw it.
My department is very strong and I have great colleagues and friends,”
he said. “It’s a great place to live and a great place to raise a
family, and it’s a really wonderful institution to be associated with.”
 Professor Matthew Robinson has been in Boone for 11 years writing and publishing. Chief Photographer Derek DeSha
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Robinson said his entire life has led up to his career and passion for criminal justice and criminology.
He began taking
the criminal justice courses in order to begin training as a police
officer, but decided not to pursue that career.
“I was kind of
wondering, didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Robinson said.
“I’ve always been attracted to the issue of justice and doing right and
trying to help people.”
Since obtaining
his Ph.D., Robinson has been working extensively on reforming the
policies related to the war on drugs, and is even teaching a course
with fellow associate professor Dr. Renee G. Scherlen concerning it on
campus.
“One of the
things that we learned while teaching the course is that there’s an
agency that’s responsible for the drug war. It’s called the Office of
National Drug Control Policy,” Robinson said. “We learned that they
were being dishonest in their presentation of statistical information.”
Robinson and
Scherlen decided to systematically analyze the agency’s data from 2000
to 2006 and found the statistics were inaccurate.
In order to
share their findings with the world, they wrote and published a book in
2007 titled “Lies, Damned Lies and Drug War Statistics.”
“The book came
out last year and it was very well received,” Robinson said. “We
started getting invitations to speak and we ended up in Washington,
D.C. and we debated the White House. We got to debate the top policy
analysts, the chief scientists in the Office of National Drug Control
Policy. So we presented our findings and he attacked us on a personal
level instead of responding to our criticisms.”
Since then, a
staff member in Congress has asked Robinson and Scherlen to analyze the
upcoming 2008 strategy and write questions for the drug czar, which he
will be required by law to answer in writing.
Aside from Robinson’s success in his career, he is also a family man.
He has a
6-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son, and a wife who is a licensed
counselor and provides therapy for the mentally ill at an office
off-campus.
“I hope that [my
children] learn all the values of my heroes,” Robinson said. “I hope
they value justice and compassion for others. I hope that they want to
make a difference in the world.”
“I want to raise happy kids. I want to have a small impact in the world through my family, that’s my main thing,” Robinson said.
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