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Biography:

Dr. Willard Oliver joined the faculty in 2003. His areas of expertise include policing, crime policy, and the history of criminal justice. Oliver's current research in policing is focused on the phenomenon of depolicing; his research into crime policy is focused on the presidential use (and abuse) of signing statements related to crime; and his history of criminal justice research is focused primarily on the authorship of a biography titled "August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing." He currently serves as the editor for the Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice's Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, and he is the Academy of Criminal Justice Science's Official Historian. Oliver is both a former police officer and a retired military police officer, as well as a Desert Storm Veteran.

Recent Publications:

• Oliver, Willard M. & Nancy E. Marion. (2013). Crime, History, & Hollywood: Learning Criminal Justice History through Major Motion Pictures. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
• Marion, Nancy E. and Oliver, W. (2012). The Public Policy of Crime and Criminal Justice (2nd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Hill, J.B., Oliver, W. M., & Marion, N.E. (2012). Presidential politics and the problem of drugs in America: Assessing the relationship between the President, media and public opinion. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 23(1), 90-107.
• Marion, N. E. & Oliver, W.M. (2012). Crime control in the 2008 Presidential campaign: Symbolic politics or tangible policies? American Journal of Criminal Justice 27(2), 111-125.
• Pollock, W., Oliver, W.M., & Menard, S. (2012). Measuring the problem: A national examination of disproportionate police contact in the United States. Criminal Justice Review, 37(2), 153-173.