Steven E. Barkan is professor of sociology at the University of Maine. His published works include several textbooks and numerous journal articles in criminology, criminal justice, law and society, and sociology. He served as president of both the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) and the Textbook and Academic Authors Association, as chair of the Law and Society Division of SSSP, and as a council member for the Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Strongly committed to undergraduate education, he currently serves on the advisory board of the ASA Honors Program and served on the council of Alpha Kappa Delta, the sociology undergraduate honorary society.