Assistant Professor
My dissertation examines the repercussions of criminal justice contact on families of offenders in Japan. Conducting twenty-month ethnography in urban areas of Japan, I observed and interviewed fifty individuals whose kin came into conflict with the law for violent, property, and drug-related offenses. Through a feminist lens, I looked at the families’ life experiences including their perceptions of the courtesy stigma, the feelings of ambivalence toward the criminal justice system as well as the offender, and the gendered and unequal distribution of offender support activities. In the end, I conclude that families of offenders, women in particular, often step in to fill the voids left by criminal justice institutions and social services to provide offenders all-inclusive care.
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About Mari Kita
My dissertation examines the repercussions of criminal justice contact on families of offenders in Japan. Conducting twenty-month ethnography in urban areas of Japan, I observed and interviewed fifty individuals whose kin came into conflict with the law for violent, property, and drug-related offenses. Through a feminist lens, I looked at the families’ life experiences including their perceptions of the courtesy stigma, the feelings of ambivalence toward the criminal justice system as well as the offender, and the gendered and unequal distribution of offender support activities. In the end, I conclude that families of offenders, women in particular, often step in to fill the voids left by criminal justice institutions and social services to provide offenders all-inclusive care.
| Present | Assistant Professor, Eastern Illinois University ‐ Sociology, Anthropology, & Criminology | |
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Disciplines
Research Interests
Grants
| 2017 - 2017 | June Chun Naughton International Student Services Scholarship |
| University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | |
| 2014 - 2015 | Center for Japanese Studies Graduate Fellowship |
| University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | |
| 2014 - 2015 | Takie Sugiyama Lebra Scholarship |
| University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa |
Professional Service and Affiliations
| Present | member, American Society for Criminology |
Courses
- Intro to Criminology
- Criminological Theory
- Deviant Behavior
| 2018 | Ph.D., University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa ‐ Sociology (emphasis Criminology) | |
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| 2009 | M.A., City University of New York ‐ Criminal Justice | |
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| 2007 | B.A., City University of New York ‐ International Criminal Justice, with Honors | |
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Contact Information
Office: 3149 - Blair Hall
Email: mkita@eiu.edu
Fall 2020 Office Hours: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 9:00-10 and 11:00-1:00 via Teams or by appointment.