W. Layne Dittmann

Dr. W. Layne Dittmann is an Assistant Professor of Border and Homeland Security in the Department of Security Studies and Criminal Justice at Angelo State University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on topics that range from emergency management preparedness to international drug trafficking and transnational crime. He also teaches introductory undergraduate courses in Intelligence and Analysis. His research interests include private prisons, racial disparity in sentencing, media portrayals of corrections related topics (private immigrant detention; street gangs), prosecutorial discretion and marijuana policy, mixed-methods social network analyses of criminal organizations (The Tijuana Cartel; MS-13; prison-contraband smuggling networks), and contraband culture and the inmate economy. Dr. Dittmann’s research has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Crime and Delinquency, Trends in Organized Crime, Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, Journal of Gang Research, and the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture.