James E. Shaw, Ph.D.
Superior Court-Certified Expert Witness: Litigation
Support and Testimony
Gangs; School Safety;
Youth Violence; Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Protocols
(310) 678-6950
(cell.); (310) 649-5118 (fax). Email: courtwitness@mac.com. Website: http://expertincourt.blogspot.com.
Commentator for NBC, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC, and author of the
nationally-acclaimed book, Jack and Jill, Why They Kill (peer-reviewed
by RAND Corporation), and the forthcoming book, GANGrene: Youth Terrorism USA
COURT APPOINTMENT: California Superior Court-Certified Expert
Witness.
Dr. Shaw is a member
on the Panel of Experts of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Criminal Division,
Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Dr. Shaw holds the
State of California License No. 030129796: Pupil Counseling, Grades K through
12.
Under Williams v. State of California, Dr.
Shaw, as one of the California State Legislature-appointed Professional Team
Leaders, went into public schools to ensure school administrator-compliance
with the stipulations and terms (re school safety, teacher certification, and
sufficient textbooks/curricular materials) of the massive and historic class
action litigation affecting the CA’s 58 counties.
Dr. Shaw served as
Director of Child Welfare for the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District,
and as Prosecutor in the Norwalk Superior Court’s Truancy Court.
Dr. Shaw served as a
member of the Child Death Review Committee of the Los Angeles County
Interagency Council Against Abuse and Neglect (I.C.A.N.).
Dr. Shaw, as an
invited keynote speaker, addressed the audience and media at the Columbine High
School memorial ceremony in honor of the slain victims.
During his four-year
in-person/in-prison research on children who killed, Dr. Shaw coined the term “adolescentcide” (the phenomenon of
children killing children) used by the media following the Columbine High
School tragedy.
Dr. Shaw is a member
of the California State Sheriff’s Education Association.
Dr. Shaw, for a number
of years, taught a law course, Administration
of Justice: Juvenile Delinquency and Legal Procedures, at the El Camino
Police Academy.
Dr. Shaw is the
author of the copyrighted “Homicidally-at-Risk Adolescent Profile,” or
H.A.R.A.P., instrument used by the Law Office of the Los Angeles County
Alternate Public Defender.
Dr. Shaw is associate
member, #00711062, of the American Bar Association.
SOME CASES FOR WHICH DR. SHAW WAS THE DESIGNATED
EXPERT:
OTHER PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
Gang Consultant and
Televised Personality for the made-for-television documentary, “Homegirls,”
produced by Luis Colina and Father Gregory Boyle (The Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Los Angeles and founder of “Homeboy Ministries.”
Instructor, Master’s Degree
Program, the University of Phoenix. Courses: Child and Adolescent
Development and Teacher-training
courses. July 2003 to present.
Instructor, Police Sciences
Curriculum, El Camino Police Academy (operated by El Camino Community College),
Torrance, CA. Course: Administration of
Justice: Juvenile Delinquency and Legal Procedures. February 2002 to
present.
Director, Pupil Personnel Services, Norwalk La Mirada Unified School District
(24,000 students – 31 schools.) and Director, Student
Attendance Review Board (S.A.R.B.) No. 21, at the Norwalk Superior Court.
Prosecuted, for the L.A. County District Attorney, parents and children in
violation of school attendance laws. Designed and co-conducted, with Sheriff
Dept., “Stop-Crimes-on-Campus” programs: Drug-Dog Sniffing Program; Juvenile
Citation-into-Court Program (for gang activity, graffiti-tagging, vandalism,
fighting, alcohol possession, profanity, drug possession and use); and
specialized gang diversion programs such as G.R.I.P., “Gang Reduction
Intervention Program” and the “Gang Awareness Project” (G.A.P.), both of which
were coordinated with local law enforcement. July 1999 – July 2000.
Consultant, Public School Law, L.A. County Office of Education. Advisor to 81
school districts on L. A. County, state laws pertaining to child welfare and
school attendance, student violence, suspensions and expulsions, gang
activity/violence and parents’ roles and responsibilities. At request of
retired Supervisor Deane Dana, I helped to write the L.A. County” Anti-Truancy
Ordinance, No 96-0009.” September 1995 – June 1999.
Producer, Educational Television. Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Produced focused programs: gang awareness and education; interviews with the
State of CA Superintendent of Schools; curriculum series involving Institutes
of Higher Education (IHE’s): USC, Claremont Graduate University, and UCLA; and
a widely-acclaimed special program I conceived, produced and hosted following
the 1992 Los Angeles riot: “Let’s Not Experience it Again.” January 1991 to
September 1995.
Teacher, Juvenile Court Schools and Probation Camps. Los Angeles County
Office of Education. Taught high school-level subjects and counseled gang
members and other incarcerated juveniles. June 1973 to present.
EDUCATION
Dr. James E. Shaw earned his Ph.D. degree (focus:
Curriculum) from the Claremont Graduate
University and received the Phi Delta Kappa (Mt. Baldy Chapter) "Best
Dissertation of the Year" award for his pioneering study of a spectrum of
children—including gang members—incarcerated in state prisons for murder and
homicide. His 4-year in-person/in-prison research of 103 girls and boys was the
subject of his doctoral dissertation. (1993 – 1997.)
The University of Southern
California, Teacher Corps Cycle VII. Two-year graduate studies program
focused on Troubled Youth. Los Angeles, CA. MSEd. Degree: 1972-1974.
California State University
at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA. B.A. Degree: 1965 -1972.
PROPRIETARY PUBLICATIONS
and INVOLVEMENT WITH OTHERS
Ph.D. Dissertation: Maturity and Choice in Adolescents
Incarcerated for Murder and Homicide (Ann Arbor; University Microfilms;
1997)
Jack & Jill, Why They Kill (Seattle; Onjinjinkta Publishing
Co., 2000)
Bully-Proofing Your Child (eBook, published in 2001).
B.R.A.V.E. (Be Resilient
Avoid Violence Everywhere). Field-tested (2001-2002, CA) by Downey Unified School District and
the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Juvenile Court and Community
Schools (JCCS). B.R.A.V.E. has been cited by the FBI/ATF Philadelphia Region as
an example of “best community practices” for its violence education and
prevention curriculum for grades 6 – 12.
Los Angeles County
Anti-Truancy Ordinance (Public Law No. 96-0009, co-written in 1995, with
other educators and lawyers, at request of then-County Supervisor Deane Dana).
Los Angeles County Master
Plan for School Safety (1998; Co-Editor)
Advisor on the Los Angeles
County Office of Education and California State Department of Education
“Classroom Management Guide” (2000)
Advisor on the Los Angeles
County Office of Education, the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department, and the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors manual, “Helping Improve Police
Practices” (H.I.P.P.). A guide on improving relationships between law enforcement
and students, particularly student gang members.
“Prosecutors as Persecutors: Can an Expert Save Justice?” (first
published by T.A.B. (Technical Assistance Bureau for attorneys).
“Evaluating Your Witness and Witnessing Their Value.” Article for National
Defender Investigator Association’s Eagle
Eye magazine.
“In Loco Parentis: the Hot Stock Du Jour.” This article first
appeared at www.Calif-Legal.com, and was the subject of my interview with editor Andrew
Brownstein of TRIAL magazine
(published by American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of
Trial Lawyers of America).
“Expert Witnesses May Find Schools Hazardous to a Child’s Health.”
Article for Consumer Attorneys of California Forum magazine.
“Drop the Fiction of Safe Schools,” published by the Los Angeles Times.
“The Cruel Arithmetic of Adolescentcide,” published by the Long Beach Press Telegram.
“Armed School Police Don’t Equal Safer Schools,” published by the Los Angeles
Times.
“Kids Killing Kids,” the Boca
Raton (FL) Times.
HONORS, PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
AND ACTIVITIES
“Certificate of Recognition” from the California State Legislature,
for book: Jack and Jill, Why They Kill
The Neil Matsumora Scholarship, University of Southern California
The Phi Delta Kappa, Mt. Baldy Chapter, “Best (Doctoral)
Dissertation of the Year” Award for four-year in-prison/in-person research on
children who killed.
President-Elect of the California Association of Supervisors of
Child Welfare and Attendance (CASCWA)
Association of California School Administrators (ACSA)
The California Teachers Association (CTA)
Associate Member of the American Bar Association
CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS
Board member of G.O.O.D. (“Gangs
Out of Downey”) Organization. Other G.O.O.D. members with whom I worked
include Judge Roy Paul, Judge David Perkins, Judge A. Lord, and Judge Manuel
Rodriguez.
Rotary International District No. 1774
AFFILIATIONS WITH EXPERT
WITNESS REFERRAL ORGANIZATIONS
OTHER
INFORMATION
Dr. Shaw began studying the social
phenomenon of troubled and at-risk youth while a graduate student (1972-1974)
in the nationally-acclaimed Urban Teacher Corps VII program at the University
of Southern California. His training at USC’s Delinquency Prevention Institute
led to further gang education training by (1) the Department of Justice (at the
L.A. County Office of Education and Inglewood USD “Gang Summit”); (2) the
Norwalk Sheriff Department’s Multi-Agency Task Force on Gangs; (3) the Los
Angeles Sheriff’s Youth Leadership Academy; (4) the Gang Awareness Project
(GAP); (5) the Gang Risk Intervention Program (GRIP); (6) Juvenile Delinquency
Summits conducted by California State Senator Betty Karnette (Long Beach); and
(7) professional conferences across the nation hosted by law enforcement
agencies and educators.
The only researcher in the country allowed to go inside prisons
and behind bars to get the life stories of a spectrum of children who killed,
Dr. Shaw wrote the landmark, nationally-acclaimed book, Jack and Jill, Why They Kill,
as a result of his four-year study. Referred to on CNN as the "The smart
answer for today's troubled times," Jack and Jill, Why They Kill has a
wide readership among school administrators, teachers, social workers,
attorneys, law enforcement officers, districts attorney, probation officers,
members of the clergy, psychologists, medical doctors, judges, and students
themselves. The book is used in colleges and universities nationwide. Dr. Shaw
coined the word “adolescentcide,” meaning children who kill other children. He
has presented gang awareness and school safety programs for the California
Attorney General, elected officials, law enforcement associations, and school
administrators nationwide.
SOME WRITTEN COMMENTS ABOUT Dr. Shaw’s Jack & Jill, Why They Kill
Reviewer: The Honorable Lee Baca, Sheriff, Los Angeles County
“No public safety policy maker can afford to overlook this common sense uncovering of the cause, terror, and nature of this human tragedy.”
Reviewer: The Honorable Nancy D. Daniels, Referee, Los Angeles Superior Court
“Jack & Jill, Why They Kill should be in the maternity packet of expectant and adoptive parents and on the desk of every school teacher, child welfare worker and juvenile court judge.”
Reviewer: The Honorable Pamela Davis, Judge, Santa Monica Superior Court
“Bravo, Dr. Shaw, for a finely-crafted book that will inspire parents and may yet save the lives of countless children!”