Michael L. Birzer is Director of the School of Community Affairs and Professor of Criminal Justice at Wichita State University. His research interests include police training, police behavior, the intersection of race and the criminal justice system, and qualitative research methods (ethnography, phenomenology, and ethnomethodology). His non-academic criminal justice experience includes over 18 years of service with the Sedgwick County Sheriffs Department in Wichita, Kansas, where he reached the rank of lieutenant. He earned his doctorate from Oklahoma State University,
Gerald Bayens is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies at Washburn University. His research interests include law enforcement response to agro-terrorism, strategic planning and policy development, and community-based corrections. His non-academic criminal justice experience includes 22 years in criminal justice. His prior employment experience includes Director of Juvenile Corrections and Director of Adult and Juvenile Community Corrections, Shawnee County, Kansas; Special Investigator, Kansas Bureau of Investigations; Criminal Investigator, Shawnee County Sheriff's Office, Kansas; and Military Policeman, U.S. Marine Corps. Dr. Bayens has served as a professional consultant and trainer for many years in the area of quality management and human resource development. He has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, with interdisciplinary emphasis in political science, research methods, and juvenile justice administration, from Union Institute and University; an M.S. in Criminal Justice from The University of Alabama; and a B.A. in Criminal Justice with minor in psychology from Washburn University. Dr. Bayens has written several research articles and books including his latest, Research Methods in Criminal Justice (CRC Press, 2011) and Probation, Parole, and Community-Base Corrections (McGraw-Hill, 2012).
Cliff Roberson is an emeritus Professor of Criminal Justice at Washburn University. His previous academic experience includes Professor of Criminology and Director of the Justice Center at California State University, Fresno; Professor of Criminal Justice and Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Houston, Victoria; Association Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Arkansas Tech University; and Director of Programs for the National College of District Attorneys, University of Houston. His non-academic legal experience includes Trial and Legal Services Supervisor, Office of State Counsel for Offenders, Texas Board of Criminal Justice; private legal practice; judge pro-tem in the California courts; trial and defense counsel and military judge as a marine judge advocate; and Director of the Military Law Branch, U.S. Marine Corps. Cliff is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Courts in California and Texas, the Supreme Court of Texas, and the Supreme Court of California. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Human Behavior from United States International University; an L.L.M., in Criminal Law, Criminology, and Psychiatry from George Washington University; a J.D. from American University; a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Missouri; and one year of post-graduate study at the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2009, a research study conducted by a group of professors from Sam Houston State University determined that Cliff Roberson was the leading criminal justice author in the United States based on his publications and their relevance to the profession (Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 6, issue 1).
