Archived News | Return to News Center

November 19, 2012

ULM professor's book touted by major publisher and adopted by several institutions

A University of Louisiana at Monroe criminal justice expert wrote a textbook in October; eight institutions have already adopted his book.

Dr. Robert Hanser, ULM associate director of the school of social sciences and a criminal justice associate professor, wrote "Introduction to Corrections," which provides students an understanding of basic concepts in the corrections field.

Jerry Westby, executive editor and acquisitions editor for sociology, criminology and criminal justice at Sage Publications, said, "This text is the primary text on the field of corrections from Sage's selection of criminal justice textbooks."

Students often have misconceptions about prison work and the correctional environment, mostly because of what they absorb from movies and the news, Hanser said.

Wanting to remedy that, he wrote about his own professional experience in the criminal justice field.

Hanser worked for more than four years as a correctional officer with inmates classified as gang-related and/or highly assaultive in Texas.

During the past three years, he has worked at Louisiana Richwood Correctional Center in northeast Louisiana, where he has implemented substance abuse treatment and offender programming.

During the past two years, he has worked as a facilitator for the Victim-Offender Dialogue team with Louisiana's Crime Victim Services Bureau of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

His book explains the correctional worker's complex world of sub-cultural norms, the impact of prisoner classification and assessment, and the theory and legal elements affecting corrections systems today.

"This text is the one that I have always wanted to write. I was able to integrate my years of professional experience working in the Texas prison system, as well as that which I have gained here in Louisiana," he said.

"Corrections is one of my primary specialty areas of study in criminal justice, and this text provides a serious and comprehensive look at the state of corrections in today's world."

The text includes a student study site that features video interview footage from Warden Burl Cain of Angola and other administrative staff at Angola.

Likewise, this site showcases videos from other personnel at Richwood Correctional Center, as well as video lectures and interviews with Hanser.

Features such as online flashcards, quizzes, online articles, and audio clips are also included and are available at
www.sagepub.com/hanserintro/study/chapter.htm

This is Hanser's ninth book to author or co-author.

During his nine years at ULM, he has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.

He has written nearly 100 publications, including reference works, book reviews, and other scholarly contributions.

The text is available from Sage Publications at:
www.sagepub.com/hanserintro/main.htm

PLEASE NOTE: Some links and e-mail addresses in these archived news stories may no longer work, and some content may include events which are no longer relevent, or reference individuals and/or organizations no longer associated with ULM.