Jana
Arsovska
Associate Professor
Phone number
646.557.4436
Room number
Haaren Hall 52.041
Education
2009 Ph.D. in International Criminology
2004 M.A. in European Criminology
2003 B.A.
in International Relations and Foreign Affairs
University of Leuven, Faculty of Criminal Law (Belgium)
University of Leuven, Faculty of Criminal Law (Belgium)
American University of Thessaloniki, Department of International Relations (Greece)
Bio

Dr. Arsovska is an Associate Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Program of Doctoral Study in Criminal Justice at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the former director of the MA Degree Program in International Crime & Justice and the Advanced Certificate in Transnational Organized Crime (which she co-developed) at John Jay College. She holds PhD degree in Criminology from Belgium where she studied Albanian organized crime. Dr. Arsovska has published extensively on organized crime and corruption, transnational crime, darknet markets, female offenders, and criminal mobility. Her book Decoding Albanian Organized Crime: Culture, Politics, and Globalization (University of California Press, 2015) is recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Book Award, DIC, ASC; 2015 Best Publication Award, IASOC; and, 2016 Outstanding Book Award, IS, ACJS. Dr. Arsovska is also the co-editor/author of the book Restoring Justice After Large-Scale Conflict: Kosovo, Congo and the Israeli-Palestinian Case (Willan Publishing, 2008). She is the recipient of the NIJ’s 2012 W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship for research on migration, culture, and transnational organized crime (app.$100,000), and is co-principal investigator of a National Institute of Justice grant (app.$600,000) on darknet drug markets. She has consulted for the World Bank, UNODC, and DCAF, and has conducted trainings for various law enforcement agencies. She has served as a lead instructor and co-course developer on transnational and cyber organized crime (trainings funded by the Bureau for Justice Assistance and the Organization of American States). Prior to her current post, she worked for the European Forum for Restorative Justice and underwent training at INTERPOL in Lyon, France. 

 

JJC Affiliations
the Program of Doctoral Study in Criminal Justice at The Graduate Center, City University of New York; Center for Cybercrime Studies
Courses Taught

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, NYC, USA (2009-present)

Course: International Crime & Justice Theory (ICJ 700), MA

Course: Drug Trafficking (ICJ 726), MA

Course: Transnational Crime (ICJ 706), MA
Course: International Criminology (SOC 341), BA
Course: Introduction to International Criminal Justice (ICJ 101), BA 

Course: Senior Seminar in International Criminal Justice (ICJ 401), BA Course: Senior Seminar in Criminology (SOC 440), BA
Course: Crime and Justice in the Balkans (ICJ 801), MA & PhD 

Course: Internship in ICJ (ICJ 780), MA

Graduate Center, CUNY, Criminal Justice Program (2014-present)

Course: Transnational & International Crime, PhD, GC CUNY
Course: Research Methods, PhD, GC CUNY (Core faculty – start Fall 2015)

New York State Department of Corrections, Otisville Correctional Facility, Orange County, NY (Fall 2012)
Course: Introduction to Sociology (SOC 101), BA

Catania University, Italy, Summer School on Organized Crime

Lectures: The politics of Balkan organized crime (July 2009)

University of Leuven, Belgium (2007-2008)

Lectures: Research methods (2007-2008) Lectures: Organized crime (2005; 2006; 2007)

New York University, Skopje, Macedonia (2006-2007)

Course: Islamic studies (January 2006) Course: US History (April 2006)

Scholarly Work

       Selected works:

Books:

Arsovska, J. (2015). Decoding Albanian organized crime. Culture, politics and globalization. Oakland: University of California Press (Recipient of the 2015 Outstanding Book Award, DIC, ASC; 2015 Best Publication Award, IASOC; 2016 Outstanding Book Award, IS, ACJS).

Aertsen, I., Arsovska, J., Rohne, C. H., Valiñas, M. & Vanspauwen, K. (Eds.) (2008). Restoring justice after large-scale violent conflicts: Kosovo, Congo and the Israeli-Palestinian Case. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.

Peer-reviewed journal articles (*Denotes a student co-author)

Forthcoming works:

Ruiz, P. & Arsovska, J.* (In progress). Meta-analysis of the Literature on Criminal Mobility. European Journal of Criminology.

Arsovska, J. & Dhrami, I.* (In progress). Meta-Analysis of the Literature on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: The Changing Images of Victims and Offenders. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice.

Allum, F. & Arsovska, J. (In progress). Comparing criminal mobility: The case of the Neapolitan Camorra and Albanian organized crime. European Journal of Criminology (under review).

Works in print:

Arsovska, J. & Temple, M.* (2016). Organizational learning, adaptation, and rationality: The expansion of Albanian organized crime in New York City. Crime, Law and Social Change, 66 (1), 1-20 (DOI 10.1007/s10611-016-9612-z).

Arsovska, J. (2016). Strategic mobsters or deprived migrants? Testing the transplantation and deprivation models of organized crime in an effort to understand criminal mobility and diversity in the United States. International Migration, 54(2), 160–75.

Arsovska, J. & Michilli, A.* (2015). Perceptions of ethnic Albanian immigrants in Western societies. Ruthless mobsters or hardworking migrants? European Review of Organised Crime, 2(1), 24-48.

Arsovska, J. (2014). Introduction: Illicit firearms market in Europe and beyond. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 20(2), 295-305 (DOI: 10.1007/s10610-014-9254-6).

Arsovska, J. & Allum, F. (2014). Introduction: Women and transnational organized crime. Trends in Organized Crime, 17(1-2), 1–15 (DOI 10.1007/s12117-014-9223-y).

Arsovska, J. (2014). The “G-local” dimension of Albanian organized crime: Mafias, strategic migration and State repression. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 20(2), 205-223  (DOI 10.1007/s10610-014-9236-8).

Arsovska, J. & Zabyelina, Y. (2014). Irrationality, liminality and the demand for illicit firearms in the Balkans and the North Caucasus. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 20(3), 399-420 (DOI: 10.1007/s10610-014-9231-0).

Arsovska, J. & Begum, P.* (2013). From West Africa to the Balkans: Exploring women’s roles in transnational organized crime. Trends in Organized Crime, 17(1-2), 132-161 (DOI 10.1007/s12117-013-9209-1).

Zabyelina, Y. & Arsovska, J. (2013). Rediscovering corruption’s other side: “Bribing for Peace” in Post-conflict Kosovo and Chechnya. Crime, Law and Social Change, 60(1), 1-24 (DOI10.1007/s10611-013-9446-x).

Arsovska, J. & Basha, D.* (2013). Globalizing the Western Balkans: transnational organized crime, radical Islam and unholy alliances. Etudes Caribéennes, 22 (23 pages). [http://etudescaribeennes.revues.org/5871]

Arsovska, J. & Kostakos, P. (2008). Illicit arms trafficking and the limits of rational choice theory: the case of the Balkans. Trends in Organized Crime, 11(4), 352-387.

Arsovska, J. (2008). Decline, change or denial: Human trafficking activities and EU responses in the Balkan Triangle. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 2(1), 50-63.

Arsovska, J. (2008). Interviewing serious offenders: Ms Egghead meets Mr Gumshoe. Trends in Organised Crime, 11(1), 42-58.

Arsovska, J. & Verduyn, P. (2008). Globalisation, conduct norms and “culture conflict”: perceptions of violence and crime in an ethnic Albanian context. British Journal of Criminology, 48(2), 226-246.

Special issue journal editorship:

Co-editor (with Dr. George Andreopoulos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice), International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, Theme: Human Trafficking and Human Rights: Myths and Realities (forthcoming, 2016).

Co-editor (with Dr. Felia Allum, University of Bath), Trends in Organized Crime. Theme: Women and Transnational Crime, 2014 (Volume 17, Double Issue 1-2 (DOI 10.1007/s12117-014-9223-y);

Guest editor, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (EJCPR). Topic: Illicit Firearms Market in Europe, 2014 (Volume 20, Issue 2) (DOI: 10.1007/s10610-014-9254-6).

Chapters in scholarly edited volumes:

Arsovska, J. (Forthcoming). Politics, Corruption, and Organized Crime in the Balkans. In F. Allum and S. Gilmore (Eds.) (2015). The politics of organized crime. London: Routledge (forthcoming).

Arsovska, J. (In Progress). Eastern European Immigration and Crime. In Holly Ventura Miller and Anthony Peguero, The Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Crime.

Arsovska, J. & Cronqvist, S. (Forthcoming). Victims of Transnational Organized Crime. In R. Randa and P. Rachel (eds). Transnational Crime and Global Security. NY: Praeger Security International.

Arsovska, J. (2013). Organized crime. In J. Albanese (Ed.), Encyclopedia of criminology & criminal justice (pp. 1-9). New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Arsovska, J. (2013). Bosnia and Herzegovina: Where international wars, transnational crime and shady politics meet. In S. Cornell and M. Jonsson (Eds.), Conflict, crime, and the state in postcommunist Eurasia (pp. 151-177). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Arsovska, J. (2012). Researching difficult populations: Interviewing techniques and methodological issues in face-to-face interviews in the study of organized crime. In L. Gideon  (Ed.) The handbook of survey methodology in social sciences (pp. 397-415). New York: Springer.

Arsovska, J. (2011). Ethnicity, mobility and transnational organized crime. In F. Allum and S. Gilmour (Eds.), Handbook on transnational organized crime (pp. 307-322). New York: Routledge.

Arsovska, J. (2011). Conceptualizing and studying organized crime in a global context: Possible? Indispensible? Superfluous? In C.J. Smith, S.X. Zhang and R.Barberet (Eds.), Routledge handbook of international criminology (pp. 211-225). London: Routledge.

Arsovska, J. (2011). The rise of Balkan organized crime groups. In M. Natarajan (Ed.), Introduction to international criminal justice (pp. 239-247). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Arsovska, J. & Kostakos, P. (2010). The social perception of organised crime in the Balkans: A world of diverging views? In F. Allum, F. Longo, D. Irrera and P. Kostakos (Eds.), Defining and defying organized crime: Discourse, perceptions & reality (pp. 113-131). New York: Routledge.

Arsovska, J. & Janssens, S. (2009). Human trafficking and the police: Good and bad practices.  In C. Friesendorf (Ed.), Strategies against human trafficking: The role of the security sector (pp. 169-211). Geneva: DCAF & Austrian National Defence Academy.

 

Articles in non-academic print:

Basha, D. & Arsovska, J. (2015). Radicalised Kosovans lured to Iraq and Syria, Jane’s Intelligence Review, 27(7), 35-39.

Arsovska, J. (2015). Careless whispers. Wiretap scandal undermines FYR Macedonia, Jane’s Intelligence Review, 27(5), 39-43.

Arsovska, J. & Basha, D.* (2012). Radical route - Salafism in the Balkans. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 24(6), 41-45.

Arsovska, J. & Basha, D.* (2011). Bare trap. Albanian police step up co-operation, Jane’s Intelligence Review, 23(6), 40-43.

Arsovska, J. (2011). Sixth form. Ethnic Albanian criminals thrive in New York. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 23(1), 44-47.

Arsovska, J. (2010). Europe: la razzia des groupes albanais, Alternatives Internationales, 049.

Arsovska, J. & Lantsman, L.* (2010). Magic touch: West African Trafficking Networks. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 22(10), 38-41.

Arsovska, J. (2009). Networking sites - Criminal group expands across the Balkans. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 21(12), 43-47.

Arsovska, J. & Janssens, S. (2008). Final destinations: Turkish human trafficking networks in Europe. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 20(12), 44-48.

Arsovska, J. & Janssens, S. (2008). Turkish delight: Turkish drug traffickers branch out. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 20(10), 43-48.

Arsovska, J. & Janssens, S. (2008). Turkish organised crime: the Gulbahr case. JIR online digest (Feb).

Arsovska, J. (2008). Countering criminals, Macedonia’s fight against organised crime. Jane’s Intelligence Review, 20(1), 44-47.

Research Summary

Principal applicant/investigator (PI/CO-PI):

PI: PSC-CUNY Enhanced Award # 67862-00 45 (Migration, Adaptation and Decision-Making in Hostile Environments: Albanian Organized Crime in New York City). Period: 2014-2015. Amount received: $11,990;

Co-PI: NIJ Research on Offender Decision-Making and Desistance From Crime (Transnational Organized Crime & Offender Decision-Making: A Study of Narratives of Desistance and Persistence) (with Dr. Lila Kazemian & Dr. Hung-En Sung). Amount requested: $799,000 (not awarded; to revise and resubmit);

PI: US Department of Justice, NIJ, Du Bois Fellowship 2012, Culture, Migration and Organized Crime: Ethnic Albanian Organized Crime in New York. Period: 2012-2014. Amount received: $98,998;

PI: PSC CUNY Award 2012, A study of the post-war expansion of Wahhabism and radical Islam in the Western Balkans. Duration: 2012-2013. TRADA-43-625. Period: 2012-2013. Amount received: $3,465;

PI: PSC-CUNY Grant 2010 (Field work in the Balkans). Period: 2009-2010. Amount received $2,500;

Co-PI (co-organizer): European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) (Project: SGOC Summer Schools on Organized Crime: Italy, Belgium & Macedonia). Period: 2009-2011. Amount received $18,000;

Co-PI (co-organizer): EU Commission funded project (Co-applicant: Catania University Italy) (Project: Supplementary Grant for the Three Summer Schools on Organized Crime). Period: 2009-2011. Amount received $100,000.

PI: Open Society Institute (OSI) & Soros Foundation, Global Supplementary Grant Program (PhD Project: The role of cultural codes in the evolution of ethnic Albanian organized crime groups). Period 2006-2009. Amount received $15,000 ($5,000x3 years);

PI: Catholic University of Leuven Research Council (KUL) (Project: The role of cultural codes in the evolution of ethnic Albanian organized crime groups). Period 2005-2009. Amount received $80,000;

PI: CERGE-EI: GDN (Global Development Network) (Project: Changing lenses: the meaning of violence and crime in an ethnic Albanian context). Period 2006-2007. Amount received $9,000.