Blomberg's research examines the link between educational achievement among incarcerated youthful offenders and successful community reintegration. His work has shown that those youth who experience disproportionate academic achievement are more likely to return to school after release and if they remain in school, their likelihood of rearrest drops significantly. These findings suggest that education achievement may be serving as a positive "turning point" in the lives of youthful offenders. Blomberg has shared these findings with policymakers throughout the country including the U.S. Congress in his guiding role for the National Alliance on Correctional Education. The Alliance is comprised of adult and juvenile correctional educators throughout the country.
Tom Blomberg
Dean & Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology
Executive Director, Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research
Editor, Criminology & Public Policy
850-644-7365
tblomberg@fsu.edu
Education
Ph. D. 1973, University of California, Berkeley, California; Criminology.
M.S. 1970, University of California, Berkeley, California; Criminology.
B. A. 1969, University of California, Berkeley, California; Sociology.
Research Interests
- Criminological Research and Public Policy
- Delinquency, Education, and Crime Desistance
- Penology and Social Control
- Victim Services
Recent Publications
- Blomberg, Thomas G. and Karol Lucken. American Penology: Enlarged Second Edition. Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 2009.
- Blomberg, Thomas G. “Why I Became a Criminologist,” Exploring Criminal Justice: The Essentials. Robert Regoli and John Hewitt, eds. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009.
- Blomberg, Thomas G., William D. Bales and Courtney A. Waid. “Educational Achievement Among Incarcerated Youth: Post Release Schooling, Employment and Crime Desistance.” The Development of Persistent Criminality. Joanne Savage, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 250-267.
- Blomberg, Thomas G., William D. Bales and Courtney A. Waid. “Punishment and Culture.” International Handbook of Penology and Criminal Justice. Shlomo Giora Shoham, Ori Beck, and Martin Kett, eds. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2007. 1-15.
- Blomberg, Thomas G. and Carter Hay. “Visions of Social Control: Revisited.” Sociology and Politics of Denial, Social Control and Human Rights – Essays in Honour of Stanley Cohen. Christine Chinkin, David Downes, Conor Gearty and Paul Rock, eds. UK: Willan Publishing, 2007. 166-186.
- Bales, William D., Shanna Van Slyke and Thomas G. Blomberg. “Substance Abuse Treatment in Prison and Community Re-Entry: Breaking the Cycle of Drugs, Crime, Incarceration and Recidivism.” Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy. 13.2 (2006): 383-401.
- Padgett, Kathy G., William D. Bales and Thomas G. Blomberg. “Under Surveillance: An Empirical Test of the Effectiveness and Consequences of Electronic Monitoring.” Criminology and Public Policy. 5.1(2006):61-92.
Funded Research
- Principal Investigator, Violence Reduction Program – Phase II (a $300,000 project funded by Palm Beach County) (2007-2009).
- Principal Investigator, Juvenile Justice Educational Enhancement Program (a $17 million renewable project funded by the Florida Department of Education and U.S. Department of Education) (June 1998-present).
- Principal Investigator, The Juvenile Justice No Child Left Behind Collaboration Project (a $1 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) (2006-present).
- Principal Investigator, Consumer Fraud (a $250,000 renewable project funded by the Florida Attorney General’s Office) (2004-present).
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