UNA PROFESSOR PHILLIP BRIDGMON PUBLISHES THIRD BOOK
October 21, 2008
By Eric Hanback
UNA Student Writer
FLORENCE, Ala. — UNA professor Phillip Bridgmon recently published the third book of his academic career after nearly three years in the making.
Bridgmon, chair of the criminal justice department, is one of three co-authors of “Criminal Justice and the Policy Process,” which was released by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
He describes the book as “an introduction to the public policy process with specific emphasis on the criminal justice policies and how they are made.”
“It’s more or less an examination of the start of the policy rather than the implementation of it,” he said.
Bridgmon, who co-authored the text with James Houston and Bill Parsons, said the United States’ PATRIOT Act was chosen for particular emphasis.
“We develop the model and then we apply it to an existing policy,” he said.
Bridgmon has also co-authored “Balancing Justice: Power, Politics, and Privilege” with John W. Clark and “E-politics: Technology in American Government” with Mark Milewicz.
Even after publishing three books so far, Bridgmon said he’s not planning on slowing down just yet.
“I have two or three book projects working at any given time,” he said. “I view it as a major part of my responsibility as part of an academic community. I place expectations on myself that I should contribute in some way to our body of knowledge.”
He also said that “being an active scholar helps me be a better and more effective teacher.”
Bridgmon said he plans to implement the text in the course Theory and Control of Crime, a class that, he explains, “intersects what we know causes crime and what we choose to do about it.”
For more information, contact UNA’s Criminal Justice Department at 256-765-5045.
