Ron Kramer is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Criminal Justice Program at Western Michigan University. He received his Ph.D. in sociology (specializing in criminology) from the Ohio State University in 1978. His research specialties within criminology are corporate and state crime, and crime prevention and control strategies. He also does research on the sociological history of the sport of baseball.

Ron is the co-author of "Crimes of the American Nuclear State: At Home and Abroad" (Northeastern University Press, 1998) and co-editor of "State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business and Government" (Rutgers University Press, 2006). For the past several years he has been working on a project that analyzes the 2003 Iraq war as a form of state crime. This project has resulted in publications in the "British Journal of Criminology" (Volume 45, July 2005) and "Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict and World Order" (Volume 32, 2005). He is currently writing a book, tentatively titled "Crimes of Empire: The Bush Administration's Illegal War on Iraq."

Ron is very active with the local criminal justice community in Kalamazoo. He recently served as Chair of the Crime Prevention Committee of the Fetzer Institute's Kalamazoo County Coalition on Criminal Justice, and he is currently on the Steering Committee of Kalamazoo County's Better Tomorrows, a delinquency prevention grant program.

Ron is also a long time peace and justice activist and a founding member of Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War (KNOW). He has been on the Executive Board of the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in society since 1985 and he founded the annual Peace and Justice Education Week at the university in 1983. Formerly the Co-Producer and Host of the television program WMU Forum (1987-1995), Ron is currently part of the collective that produces the television program "Critical Issues, Alternative Views" which airs weekly on Community Access Cable Television in Kalamazoo.

In 1981 Ron was awarded the WMU Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award. He is also the 2004 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology's Division on Critical Criminology.

Ron is an avid Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Indian fan, plays in three softball leagues, and likes to run and lift weights. He is a former Little League coach. He lives in Kalamazoo with his wife Jane. They have two adult children.

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For more information, please contact the undergraduate and graduate academic advisor, Susan Standish.  Telephone: (269) 387-5286.