Started from the Bottom, Now We’re Here: Reflections of a Latinx Scholar-Activist

Abstract

This reflection chronicles the academic journey of a Latinx scholar through an under-resourced public school system to the director and co-founder of a Criminology program at a four year university. This auto-ethnographic case study highlights the impact of community, social programs and personal resilience to escape a life on the streets and a broken criminal justice system. The reflection concludes with a discussion of prison education and the need to humanize the criminal justice system.

Keywords:

• Latinx scholar
• auto-ethnography & personal resilience

Declarations

Authors’ contributions

The author contributed to the article conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dr. Perez and forwarded to the LC JCJE Special Issue editors for review. The author incorporated any feedback and submitted a final manuscript for review.

Consent for publication

No identifying information about participants is shared.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

This article did not conduct human subject research

Funding

This article did not benefit from internal or external funding sources

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xavier Perez

Dr. Xavier Perez is the co-founder of the Criminology Department at DePaul University. He is an advocate for critical and inclusive perspectives in Criminal Justice. Growing up in Chicago, Dr. Perez experienced the social consequences associated with disinvestment, housing segregation and mass incarceration. As a scholar, Dr. Perez’s research interests address two broad areas of study: Criminology and Latinx crime. Specifically, what distinguishes Latinx communities from other racial/ethnic groups in America? Dr. Perez’s research interests also explore variation in legal traditions around the world and the implications of such variation on crime policies. In particular, his research examines police/community relations in Puerto Rico. More recently, Dr. Perez’s research examines the impact of COVID-19 on violence prevention efforts in working class communities of color.