Peter St. Jean featured image background

Peter St. Jean

Professor of Sociology

Dr. Peter St. Jean says the choice to teach at North Park was easy, because the core values of the University align with his personal life mission: “to reduce suffering and improve quality of life.” From his extensive scholarship and writing in criminology and sociology, to his documentary films on justice, to his nonprofit and consulting work, all that St. Jean does is focused on that mission.

St. Jean founded the Peaceful World Movement, an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop a peace industry as a sustainable antidote to crime, violence, and delinquency. His students tour Chicago’s neighborhoods to examine not only the social problems occurring, but also the possibilities for positive change and peace.

St. Jean is a member of the American Sociological Association, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, American Society of Criminology, and Division on People of Color and Crime, and he is the faculty founder of North Park’s student Criminal Justice Club.

Recent Publications

  • Features in Ebony magazine
  • St. Jean, Peter K. B. 2007. Pockets of Crime: Broken Windows, Collective Efficacy, and the Criminal Point of View. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • “Explaining Strained Community-Police Relations in a Racially and Ethnically Homogeneous Community: Grand Bay, Dominica.” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice. Volume 5, Number 2/3: 1–27. 2007.
  • St. Jean, Peter K. B. 2006. Lessons from Grand Bay: Prospects for Maintaining Low Crime in Dominica, Nature Island of the Caribbean. Toronto, Canada: Pond Casse Press.
  • “Caribbean Criminology – An Empirical Question: A Further Critique.” Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology. St. Augustine, Trinidad. University of the West Indies Press. Volume 4:210–232. 1999.