Leon E. Pettiway
Leon E. Pettiway is a 2-Time AALBC.com Bestselling Author
Leon E. Pettiway, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), the Venerable Lobzang Dorje, is Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington. He has conducted research that integrates geographical and criminological theories to explain crime patterns in urban areas. In that regard, he has published articles on the impact of race and ghettoization on patterns of crime participation, the role of environmental and individual factors in arson, the relationship between an individual's drug use and criminal participation in the formation of crime partnerships, and the criminal decision-making process of addicts and nonusers in light of various environmental cues. Upon the conclusion of a major field research project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, he completed Honey, Honey, Miss Thang: Being Black, Gay, and on the Streets, a Finalist for the 9th Annual Lambda Literary Award (Temple University Press), which examined the lives of drug addicted, gay transgender women who commit a variety of crimes, and Workin' It: Women Living Through Drugs and Crime (Temple University Press) which chronicled the drug use and crime participation of a group of inner-city women. Before his retirement, his intellectual work centered on the construction of knowledge and how Eastern and Western philosophical traditions might be integrated into criminological theory and the administration of justice. His upcoming publication, Only for the Brave at Heart: Essays Rethinking Race, Crime, and Justice, critiques the ways the American mind has thought about race, crime, and justice. In using the Buddhist and Afrocentric perspectives as a vehicle for social commentary, he provides a path to liberate our thoughts concerning these important issues.
He is a fully ordained Buddhist monk, one of only a handful of African-American monks in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In retirement, he focuses his attention on his spiritual practice, teaching Buddhism, and writing.
Learn more at Leon E. Pettiway’s official website
