Steven E. Barkan is professor of sociology at the University of Maine, where he teaches courses on criminology, deviance, and juvenile delinquency. He is an award-winning textbook author, having written several previous texts, including Criminology: A Sociological Understanding, 6/E (Prentice Hall), Law and Society: An Introduction (Pearson), Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World (Flat World Knowledge), Social Problems: Continuity and Change (Flat World Knowledge), and Discovering Society: Using MicroCase ExplorIT, 3e (Cengage).
Professor Barkan has written many journal articles dealing with topics such as racial prejudice and death penalty attitudes, views on police brutality, political trials, and feminist activism. These articles have appeared in the American Sociological Review, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, Social Forces, Social Problems, Sociological Forum, Sociological Inquiry, and other journals.
Professor Barkan is a past president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and currently Vice President/President-elect of the Text and Academic Authors Association.