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Brian Pitman

Assistant Professor of Criminology, Lander University
Chapter Member: South Carolina SSN
Areas of Expertise:

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About Brian

Dr. Pitman's research focuses on housing and the criminal legal system. Dr. Pitman has written for public outlets such as TruthOut, The Conversation, and the Bangor Daily News. Pitman's peer-reviewed articles can be found in Critical Criminology, Race and Justice, Social Justice, and Convergence.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | Member Spotlight | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Fentanyl Is Dangerous, But It Is No Weapon of Mass Destruction

Commentary,

The Racist History of Police in America

Commentary,

In the News

Opinion: "Why Bangor’s Affordable Housing Policies Won’t Address Homelessness," Brian Pitman (with Brenna Jones), Housing/Opinion/Policy, Shelterforce, March 16, 2023.
Opinion: "Scholars Strategy Network: The Racist Roots of Gun Control," Brian Pitman, Central Maine, July 5, 2022.
Opinion: "Penobscot County Should Build Housing, Not Expand Its Jail," Brian Pitman, Bangor Daily News, November 29, 2021.
Quoted by in "The Price of Black Life ," Michigan Chronicle, October 6, 2020.
Opinion: "Editorial Misfired on Civil War, the Confederate History ," Brian Pitman, The Robesonian, December 8, 2019.
Opinion: "Something in the Water: West Virginians New Fight for Clean Water," Brian Pitman (with Dr. Stephen T. Young), Ovec, August 2, 2019.
Opinion: "Stripping Social Programs Leads to Lower Life Expectancy," Brian Pitman (with Stephen T. Young), Truthout, February 6, 2019.
Opinion: "Land of Extraction: How the Carceral Institution Settled in Central Appalachia," Brian Pitman (with Stephen T. Young), Prisons & Policing, Truthout, September 2, 2018.
Opinion: "Speak Up Against GOP Tax Plan ," Brian Pitman, The Robesonian, November 28, 2017.

Publications

"Total Extraction: Exploitative Behaviors of the Carceral Apparatus Towards Carceral Officers in Central Appalachia" (with Stephen T. Young). Springer Link (2020).

Explores the nature of prison-building and the resulting exploitation of individuals working in these carceral institutions in Central Appalachia. Argues that prison-building is a mechanism of economic and social control within the region, and we focus our analysis on the poor working conditions, impoverished pay, and the general toxicity of the land on which these prisons are situated.

"Freedom in the wilderness: A study of a Darknet space" (with Roderick Graham). Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies 26, no. 3 (2018): 593-619.

Findings show that Freenet fosters a singular distribution of content, with a high ratio of blogs (or flogs), child pornography, empty links, and Web 1.0 websites that archive information.

"Social Media Users’ Interpretations of the Sandra Bland Arrest Video" (with Asha M. Ralph, Jocelyn Camacho, and Elizabeth Monk-Turner). Race and Justice 9, no. 4 (2017): 479-497.

 Explores how social media users understand the case of Sandra Bland. Specifically, we focus on where they cast blame and how they explain that blame.