\u201cOut of the Red: My Life of Gangs, Prison and Redemption,\u201d <\/em>which recently received the Frank Tannenbaum Outstanding Book Award from the American Society of Criminology.<\/p>\nBolden grew up surrounded by gangs in a San Antonio, Texas, community and quickly fell into that culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids like myself who were not functioning well in legitimate avenues had this readily available subculture to find meaning in,\u201d Bolden said. \u201cThere were a lot of things that contributed to my involvement in gangs, including being pushed out of education through the school-to-prison pipeline and having an absentee father who made the choice to stay out in bars instead of coming home to his family at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The time spent in prison is what Bolden points to as the event that changed his life. During his sentence in Texas, a grant came through for young inmates that allowed those with satisfactory disciplinary records a chance to go to college. The program introduced Bolden to a topic that would become his academic and personal passion: sociology.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in my life I was learning about a subject that defined exactly what and why I had gone through the things I was going through,\u201d said Bolden. \u201cI fell in love with sociology for that reason. It explained everything for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolden earned his associates degree prior to his release, but it was only a stepping stone, not a free pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything but gangs and prison at the time, so it wasn\u2019t an easy transition,\u201d said Bolden. \u201cNobody wanted to give me a job. I couldn\u2019t even secure one at a fast-food restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas State University eventually accepted Bolden after his persistent efforts and gave him the outlet he had always been looking for to tell his story and to help others. The chair of the Sociology Department encouraged Bolden to pursue his Ph.D. after excelling in their program, which is how Bolden landed at UCF.<\/p>\n
One of the highlights of his time in Orlando was meeting renowned authors and sociologists at talks hosted for students. Bolden recalls meeting criminologist Jody Miller, Ph.D, during a UCF-affiliated event that inspired a later research collaboration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember approaching and conversing with Dr. Miller after one of these talks,\u201d said Bolden. \u201cAfterwards she chose me to be a part of the Eurogang Young Scholars program to support my research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Miller, Bolden also studies sociology that focuses on discrimination and incarceration in urban communities. This meeting further inspired him to pursue his studies on an even deeper level.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my dissertation, I decided I\u2019d be interviewing members of gangs,\u201d said Bolden. \u201cThis made me realize quite a bit. As a society, we go through these motions of simply throwing people away because of mistakes they made due to circumstance\u2026just giving up on them. In reality, with the right support and direction, people can learn to apply themselves and earn a proper second chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Writing his book gave Bolden the chance to not only help others, but to soothe a part of himself that he once struggled to understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I began studying sociology it was mind blowing,\u201d said Bolden. \u201cI finally understood that many of the adversities I faced in life were not results of me being a \u2018defective\u2019 individual but rather a result of decisions influenced by much larger social forces and contextual circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolden graduated with his Ph.D in 2010 before joining Loyala University faculty in their Department of Criminology and Justice. His book has afforded him the accolade of the 2020-2021 Loyola Faculty Senate Award for Research.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love higher education,\u201d said Bolden. \u201cIt was a passion for me the moment I became involved. I used to have the feeling that I was an outsider, that I didn\u2019t belong. Sometimes still I don\u2019t feel that I\u2019m a part of mainstream academia and that I may be judged for my past. However receiving the accolades and awards for my book helps mitigate these feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Christian Bolden, Ph.D., \u201910, is living proof that second chances exist. \u201cIf there should be one takeaway from my story it\u2019s that people can change and they can do better if people don\u2019t give up on them,\u201d he said. Today Bolden is a distinguished associate professor of criminology and justice at Loyola University in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":28607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,38,13,5967,6492,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-notables","category-sociology-department","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n