Criminal Justice Abroad

My wife and I arrived in London yesterday morning, where we will be spending the fall semester. In addition to serving as the faculty director for UNC’s honors study abroad program, I will be teaching an undergraduate course on criminal law and justice. Assuming I’ve done it right, below are pictures of the entrance to our home away from home for the next four months, UNC’s Winston House on Bedford Square in central London.   I am thrilled to have this opportunity—not just the chance to live for a short while in this amazing place but also the ability to step back from my day-to-day criminal law work and take a broader look at the challenges facing our criminal justice system. Getting ready for the fall, I’ve already been struck by both the similarities and differences between the U.S. and U.K. systems. I am excited to hear the perspectives of the exceptional UNC students in the program, 25 in all and 16 in my criminal law and justice class. I fully expect they will challenge our assumptions and practices, some venerated, some merely entrenched. I will blog each Thursday about our criminal law adventures in London. We will take advantage of our presence in the heart of England to explore iconic ideas, events, and places in British criminal justice and use them as a jumping off point for our discussions about poverty, race, mental health, and other challenges in both the U.S. and U.K. I want to close this short post [...]