School of Public Affairs

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.  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) at SDSU.   

McIllwain serves as an Associate Editor of Trends in Organized Crime, the official peer-reviewed journal of the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime. He currently serves as the Intellectual Property Theft Area Chair, and previously served as the Homeland Security Area Chair, for the American Society of Criminology.  He is currently a lecturer in the Irregular Warfare Program for Joint Special Operations University, the war college for the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Before coming to SDSU, Dr. McIllwain was an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Administration at Sonoma State University (1996-2000).  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 and Holocaust Education 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. His book, Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York’s Chinatown, was published by McFarland & Company in 2004.   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 following themes:

 · the history and evolution of transnational crime (e.g., drug smuggling, human trafficking, and terrorism);
· the history and evolution 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 irregular warfare;
· the application of social network theory and cultural anthropology to the study of organized crime and irregular warfare;
· the impact of crime and security on race relations, acculturation, and ethnic identity;
. and pedagogical reform for the education and training of U.S. military personnel.

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

· he is awaiting peer review results of his book manuscript (tentatively entitled The Organized Crime Matrix: Reflections on Organizing Crime and co-authored with the distinguished sociologist and criminologist Joseph Albini) on the criminology of organized crime;
· he is developing a macro-level theory of organized crime grounded on long-term historical and network perspectives;
· he is analyzing the role and function of organized crime networks and upperworld institutions in irregular warfare, especially as related to smuggling networks, syndicate crime, and terrorist and insurgent groups in Iraq, Mexico, Afghanistan, India, and other nations;
· he is conducting research for a book, tentatively entitled Organized Crime and the Human Experience: A History of the Globalization of Organized Crime, for the Routledge Studies on Globalization and History series; a book chapter summarizing the research conducted to date will soon appear in Stan Gilmour and Felia Allum’s edited work, tentatively entitled A Handbook on Transnational Organized Crime (Routledge, 2010)
· and he is analyzing how lessons learned from rhetorical analysis can assist in deterring organized crime and political violence in conflict areas.

Dr. McIllwain is actively involved with study abroad programs, his most recent being “Totalitarianism, Transition, and Reform: The Case of Poland,” in partnership with the University of Warsaw.  Past study abroad courses he taught include “Border Security: The Case of the U.S. and Mexico,” which was taught in Baja California Norte, Mexico (2007), “Mexican Security: Past, Present and Future” which was taught in Mexico City and Guadalajara (2008), “Comparative Criminal Justice: The Case of Mexico and the United States” and “The War on Drugs: Cross Cultural Perspectives” (both held in Guadalajara) and the “Irish Criminal Justice System” (Republic of Ireland).  He is currently developing study abroad courses on critical incident response and investigation in the wake of the 3/11 bombings to be held in Madrid with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (summer 2010); and on European approaches to homeland security with colleagues at Erasmus Universiteit - Rotterdam, the University of Leiden, and Sciences Politique - Paris (summer 2011).   He is also administrating the year-round Graduate Program in Homeland Security’s semester study abroad program in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

A winner of many teaching and student mentoring awards, Dr. McIllwain has developed and taught one of the first graduate-level courses in the United States dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of homeland security. He has also developed and taught courses on warfare and security, transnational crime and security, organized crime, drugs and society, history of crime and criminal justice, policing, border security, criminal justice policy, the geopolitics of the “Great Game” in Central Asia, and media and crime.  

Dr. McIllwain is 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 (i.e., Los Angeles Times, CNN, Fox News, NPR, Financial Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Telemundo, Univision, KNX 1070 News Radio, NBC 7/39, etc.).  He speaks frequently on topics related to organized crime and homeland and international security to audiences in the U.S. and abroad.

McIllwain has served as an American Red Cross disaster and military social services volunteer in the states of California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and as a board member for the Sonoma County (CA) Chapter where he served as Chair of the Disaster Services Committee.  McIllwain also worked for the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.

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).

Updated July 2009