Profile for Jennifer Trost
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Jennifer Trost
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Associate Professor
History
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Jennifer Trost Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Associate Professor
History
Specialty area(s)
History of Identity Theft and Impersonation; Swindling; History of Identification and Surveillance Policy; White-Collar Crime; Juvenile Legal Policy
Brief biography
Since I grew up in the segregated South, I have been interested in how different groups of people experience the American legal system and how those differences contribute to crime policy. My book Gateway to Justice: The Juvenile Court and Progressive Child Welfare in a Southern City explored the origins and workings of the juvenile legal system in Memphis, Tennessee. My current research is about financial crimes, including the history of identity theft and impersonation in America, beginning with the Impostor Rule and ending with the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998. I also research the history of swindling and how crimes of deceit exist in the gray areas between entrepreneurial capitalism and economic crime. As a policy historian, I try to do as much as possible to correct misinformation about crime and the people labelled as criminals, and to explain why we have the criminal legal system we do.
I grew up in Lubbock, Texas.
Current courses at UWL
Crime and Punishment in America
Government and Society
Introduction to Public and Policy History
Money: A History
Money and Crime
US Reform Movements
World History
Education
Ph.D. History and Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania
M.S. Applied History, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania
B.A. History, Southwestern University, Texas
Career
Teaching history
American History Survey
Comparative Criminal Justice Systems
Criminology
History of American Drug Policy
History of Crime and Punishment in America
Juvenile Justice
Riots and Rioting in America
World History
Professional history
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Utica College, New York 2008-2013
Visiting Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Muskingum University, Ohio 2006-2007
Associate Professor of History, Saint Leo University, Florida 2005-2007
Assistant Professor of History, Saint Leo University, Florida 2000-2005
Research and publishing
"The Impostor Rule and Identity Theft in America, " Law and History Review, May 2017.
"From Juvenile Court to Safe Haven: The Lessons of Juvenile Justice History and the 2008 Nebraska Safe Haven Law," Criminal Justice Review, September 2013.
Gateway to Justice: The Juvenile Court and Progressive Child Welfare in a Southern City, University of Georgia Press, 2005.
Kudos
elected
named