School of Public Affairs Faculty

Jeffrey McIllwain, Ph.D.

Jeff McIllwain

Jeffrey Scott McIllwain, Ph.D.
Criminal Justice and Criminology Program/Homeland Security Program,
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-4505
W: 619-594-3876 mcillwai@mail.sdsu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jeffrey Scott McIllwain joined the Program in Criminal Justice Administration in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2000. He also serves on the faculty of the Latin American Studies Program. A tenured Associate Professor, he is the co-founder and Co-Director of SDSU’s interdisciplinary graduate Program in Homeland Security, the first program of its kind in the United States. He previously served as the Director of the interdisciplinary International Security and Conflict Resolution Program (2001-2003) and the Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Criminal Justice and Criminology (2006-2007). McIllwain is also the American Editor of Trends in Organized Crime, the official peer-reviewed journal of the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime. He serves as the Intellectual Property Theft Area Chair, and previously served as the Homeland Security Area Chair, for the American Society of Criminology.

 Before coming to SDSU, Dr. McIllwain was an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Administration at Sonoma State University for four years.  He has also served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Guadalajara’s Department of Political Science and Center for Strategic Studies (2004), a Fellow at the Institute on the Holocaust at Northwestern University (2001), a National Endowment for the Humanities Visiting Scholar at Barnard College and Columbia University (1998), and a Visiting Lecturer at An Garda Siochana College in the Republic of Ireland (1995).

 A historian and criminologist, Dr. McIllwain’s research largely emphasizes the impact of history on criminal justice policy, criminological theory, and international and homeland security. In early 2004 his book, Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York’s Chinatown, was published by McFarland & Company.   His research, which has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Justice Quarterly, Crime, Law & Social Change, Western Legal History, Trends in Organized Crime, Global Crime, and Transnational Organized Crime, focuses on:

 · the history and development of transnational crime (e.g., drug smuggling, human trafficking, and terrorism);
· the history and development of criminal justice and security policies intended to address transnational crime;
· the impact of transnational crime on international and national security issues;
· the impact of transnational crime on border communities and border security;
· technology and crime, especially virtual crime opportunities and battlefields;
· the role of upperworld figures and institutions in facilitating transnational crime and asymmetrical warfare (i.e., terrorism);
· the application of social network theory and cultural anthropology to the study of organized crime and asymmetrical warfare;
· and the impact of crime and security on race relations, acculturation, and ethnic identity.

Dr. McIllwain’s current research projects include the following:

 · he is co-authoring a book, tentatively entitled The Organized Crime Matrix, with distinguished sociologist Joseph Albini on the relationship of organized crime to security for Roxbury Press (for publication in 2007);
· developing a macro-level theory of organized crime grounded on long-term historical perspectives;
· analyzing the role of organized crime and upperworld institutions in asymmetrical warfare, especially as related to smuggling networks, syndicate crime, and terrorist and insurgent groups in Iraq;
· analyzing how information operations can assist in deterring organized crime in Iraq and Afghanistan;
· working with an interdisciplinary team on a study of political will in the cognitive reasoning domain;
· and conducting National Institute of Justice (NIJ)-funded field research on the structure and function of human trafficking networks in Tijuana with his SDSU colleague Sheldon Zhang.

Dr. McIllwain is actively involved with study abroad programs, his most recent being “Border Security: The Case of the U.S. and Mexico,” which was taught in Baja California, Mexico this past summer (2007).  Past study abroad courses he taught include “Comparative Criminal Justice: The Case of Mexico and the United States,” “Mexican Security: Past, Present, Future” and “The War on Drugs: Cross Cultural Perspectives” (all held in Guadalajara) and the “Irish Criminal Justice System” (Republic of Ireland).  He is currently developing study abroad courses on authoritarianism and security in Central Europe with the University of Warsaw (summer 2008); on critical incident response in the wake of the 3/11 bombings to be held in Madrid (summer 2008); on European approaches to homeland security with colleagues at Erasmus Universiteit -Rotterdam, the University of Leiden, and Sciences Politique - Paris (summer 2008), and on international policing and counterterrorism with colleagues in Turkey (summer 2009).

A winner of many teaching and student mentoring awards, Dr. McIllwain developed and teaches one of the first graduate-level courses in the United States dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of homeland security. He also teaches courses on warfare and security, organized crime, drug trafficking, history and crime and criminal justice, policing, criminal justice policy, and media and crime.   

This year Dr. McIllwain will begin teaching sections on organized crime at the Department of State’s International Law Enforcement Academy.  He is also a frequent speaker on transnational crime, corruption, national and homeland security, and policing for the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor’s Program, the San Diego World Affairs Council, the San Diego International Visitors Council.

Dr. McIllwain has testified to the U.S. Congress on the subject of border security and has also served as a consultant and advisor to a number of criminal justice, homeland security, military, and homeland security-related organizations in the San Diego region, the U.S., and abroad, as well as many news periodicals and television news programs (L.A. Times, CNN, NPR, Financial Times, Telemundo, Univision, etc.).  He speaks frequently on topics related to organized crime and homeland and international security to audiences in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. McIllwain was an undergraduate at the University of Southern California (USC), graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a triple major in International Relations, Political Science, and History.  After attending USC, Dr. McIllwain accepted a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship to study at the Contemporary History Institute at Ohio University, where he earned an M.A. in U.S. Diplomatic History.  He then accepted a graduate assistantship to the Pennsylvania State University where he earned his Ph.D. in Administration of Justice in 1997. He also studied Roman history and British politics at Cambridge University in England (1990) and terrorism at An Garda Siochana College in the Republic of Ireland (1995).

McIllwain has served as an American Red Cross disaster and military social services volunteer in California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and as a board member for the Sonoma County (CA) Chapter.  He lives in La Mesa, CA with his wife Donna and his son Collin.

Last updated 8/7/2007