Profile for Karl Kunkel
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Karl Kunkel
Professor
Sociology & Criminal Justice
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Karl Kunkel
Professor
Sociology & Criminal Justice
Specialty area(s)
Criminological Theory, Sociology of Deviant Behavior, Political Economy of Crime Control, White Collar Crime, Criminal Courts, Constructing Social Problems, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Current courses at UWL
FYS 100 - First Year Seminar: Balancing the Scales of Justice
CRIM 312 - Courts, Crime, and Justice
CRIM 322 - Criminology
SOC 429 - Sociology of Deviance
Education
Ph.D. in Sociology with emphasis in Deviance, Crime and Social Control from the University of Missouri - Columbia.
Career
Professional history
I was a faculty member in Criminology and Sociology at Missouri State University for 17 years before moving into academic administrative positions at Pittsburg State University, Southeast Missouri State University, and UWL. I returned to a full-time faculty position at UWL starting Fall 2026.
Research and publishing
Selected Publications-
Kunkel, Karl R. Kerry J. Nelson, and Julianna Cameron, 2009. "Survey of Missouri Criminal Trial Judges, Prosecutors, and Criminal Defense Attorneys Concerning Perceptions of the Sentencing Assessment Report Process." Technical report conducted for the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission (MOSAC).
Kunkel, Karl R. and Jason S. Capps. 2005. "Private Prisons." Pp. 768 - 773 in Mary F. Bosworth (ed.) Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facilities. Sage Publications.
Kunkel, Karl R. 2004. "A Research Note Assessing the Benefit of Presentation Software in Two Different Lecture Courses." Teaching Sociology 32:188-196.
Kunkel, Karl R. 2003. "Assessing Computer Technology in the Criminal Justice Classroom: A Case Study." The Journal of Criminal Justice Education 14:83-104.
Kunkel, Karl R. 2003. "Factory Farming as a Social Problem." Pp. 101-106 in Social Problems: Constructionist Readings, Donileen R. Loseke and Joel Best (eds.). Aldine de Gruyter.
Kunkel, Karl R. 1999. "Animal Welfare and Human Benefit: Rationale Expansion as Strategy in the Anti-Vivisection Campaign." Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 27:47-55.
Kunkel, Karl R. 1999. "Reclaiming Deviance as a Unique Course from Criminology: Revisited." Teaching Sociology 27:38-43. Reprinted in Martin D. Schwartz and Micheal O. Maume (Des.) 1999. Teaching the Sociology of Deviance, pp. 9-15. American Sociological Association and Bruce Hoffman and Ashley Demyan (eds.) 2008. Teaching and Learning about Deviance: A Resource Guide (sixth edition), pp. 17-20. The American Sociological Association.
Kunkel, Karl R. 1995. "Down on the Farm: Rationale Expansion in the Construction of Factory Farming as a Social Problem." Pp. 239-256 in Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems (second edition). Joel Best (ed.) Aldine de Gruyter.
Kunkel, Karl R. 1994. "Economics of Crime Control: Allocations for Law Enforcement Versus Treatment Programs." Journal of Correctional Training. Winter: 10 - 11, 18-20.
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