Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State teacher and researcher in the fields of criminal justice and corrections is receiving a major regional honor.
Sociology professor Peter B. Wood is this year's selection for the Southern Criminal Justice Association's 2007 Outstanding Educator Award. He currently serves as interim head of the university's department of sociology, anthropology and social work, while continuing to lead its criminal justice and corrections academic program.
An MSU faculty member since 1996, Wood was presented the award during the professional organization's recent convention in Savannah, Ga. He was association president in 2005-06 and his latest honor is one of two top SCJA recognitions given annually.
An affiliate of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the association represents educators, researchers, practitioners, and students in 11 Southeastern states from Mississippi to Virginia, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Wood's research includes factors that motivate and maintain habitual offending, formal and informal deterrence mechanisms, and issues related to correctional punishment philosophy and practice. He is a Vanderbilt University doctoral graduate who came to MSU from the University of Oklahoma.
Frequently published in professional journals, he has served as principal or co-principal investigator for numerous funded research projects. Among others, they include studies of the impact of community-based correctional sanctions vs. imprisonment; use of the death penalty in Mississippi and other Southern states; and implementation of the Magnolia State's truth-in-sentencing legislation.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: Dr. Wood may be contacted for additional information on his work at 662-325-7876 or wood@soc.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.