March 9, 2001

Professor Dee Harper on top of crime and the criminal justice program

by Michael Rerick, A'02 Intern in the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications

Dee Harper has been teaching sociology at Loyola University since 1973. Currently, he teaches classes on criminology for City College, and he is the graduate degree coordinator for the recently established criminal justice graduate program. Harper received a bachelor of arts from George Peabody of Vanderbilt University, a master of arts and doctorate degree from Louisiana State University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University. While at Tulane he began teaching sociology courses at Loyola and has been on the faculty ever since.

I caught up with Harper in his office in Stallings Hall, where we chatted about sociology, criminology, a grant he's working on, recent and past statistical work and a few maters of personal interest. Harper is originally from Nashville, Tennessee. "But," he affirms as he sat back in his chair, "I have never been to the Grand Ole Opry. I guess that's like saying you've never been to Jazz Fest, but grew up in New Orleans," he says laughing.

Recently, Harper along with former student Captain Louis Dabdoub, commander second district of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), received funds for a grant titled "Prototype Domestic Violence Intervention Program." The grant will provide training for police officers in the second district on improving responses to domestic violence calls. Supporters of the grant include the Tulane Medical Center, Louisiana Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control, YWCA, District Attorney Office, and NOPD's second district. The grant was inspired, researched, and co-written by Dabdoub for a class project.

"There are a number of problems in the way current responses to domestic violence calls are handled," Harper acknowledges. Among the problems are not enough follow-ups, too large a number of dual arrests, and victims often drop charges or even turn on police while assailants are being arrested. To help solve this, Harper will be working with the second district to train officers on approaches that will ensure both the officer's and the victim's safety. The training will be implemented during role call, when officers gather together before their shift.

An assistant attorney from the New Orleans District Attorney Office has been hired through the grant to specifically handle follow-ups on domestic violence calls. After three years of implementing and fine tuning the plan, the training will be expanded throughout the NOPD.

The grant is important to Harper as he has been interested in the sociological aspect of deviant behavior since the early 1980s. Sitting in front of his computer, Harper pointed out data from 1990 that showed the New Orleans domestic violence rate at five times higher than the national average. He admits that domestic violence rates in New Orleans as well as the national average have been dropping recently, but that "domestic violence rates are still very high." Though this data is from an ongoing study done outside the grant, Harper wanted to stress the immediate threat of domestic violence.

Currently, Harper is working on a paper that outlines the many aspects involved in intimate relationship homicides. Also, someday in the future he would like to publish a book on robbery.

Throughout Harper's career as a professor of criminology he has had a mixed crowd of students sit before him. Some take classes because they are interested in the lucrative field of criminology. Others are law students. Some are already involved in the law profession and are seeking to sharpen their skills or raise their salaries. "The field of criminology is growing," Harper emphasizes. "We have 60 freshmen and five transfer applicants in the bachelor of arts in criminal justice program in the College of Arts and Sciences this coming fall, and we're doing all we can to hire faculty to support the incoming students."

Harper is also fervently active in getting students involved in internships. Some past internships were at the FBI, coroner's offices, NOPD, and Delta Airlines Security. Students also have taken trips to homicide sites. Harper is unabashed when he says he loves getting his students involved in the actual work of criminology, going beyond the classroom.

Concerning his love of bicycling, I asked about the picture of him at a racetrack posted on his faculty website. He told me the picture was taken in 1985 or 1986, when he rode in the Olympic trials. "I was riding pretty fast that day," he said. "I had pretty good time. That is, until some guys from out of town showed up and blew all of us away!" He didn't go to the Olympics, and hasn't actually raced for sometime now. "But," he added, "I just renewed my racing license."

I have to admit this sort of energy, coupled with his genuine friendliness and academic expertise, makes Dee Harper valuable to both students and faculty.