{"id":5882,"date":"2019-07-12T09:24:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T13:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2019-07-12T09:41:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T13:41:36","slug":"hitting-the-streets-john-vaccaro-12-on-what-led-him-to-working-with-the-nypd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/hitting-the-streets-john-vaccaro-12-on-what-led-him-to-working-with-the-nypd\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting the Streets: John Vaccaro ’12 on What Led Him to Working With the NYPD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up in URI\u2019s hometown of Kingston, Rhode Island, John Vaccaro ’12 opted to attend the university closest to home for that and many other reasons. \u201cIt was convenient with my father working there,\u201d he says, \u201cand of course there was the family legacy since my older siblings attended. But I wanted to go to URI because it\u2019s a strong academic institution.\u201d Having enjoyed his psychology class in high school, Vaccaro started his collegiate career as a psychology major. After some time, he found an additional discipline to be fascinating as well. His desire to concentrate on criminal justice led him to further explore the concept of majoring in one of the College\u2019s social science programs: Sociology. Due to the department\u2019s wide array of criminal justice courses offered — before it became a major in and of itself — Vaccaro seized the opportunity to advance his criminological knowledge.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

During his time studying sociology at URI, Vaccaro found himself inspired by the knowledge his professors had. He praises Professor Emeritus Leo Carroll\u2019s independent review of policing in the 1980s, which revealed that police did in fact show racial bias. In addition, Vaccaro held a few research positions that helped further his career experience. \u201cI had an internship at the ACI [Adult Correctional Facility] in Cranston in both maximum and medium security prisons, where I spent most of my time in the planning and research divisions,\u201d he explains, \u201cIt allowed me to basically do my own independent research policy on sex offenders.\u201d While these experiences combined to enhance his URI experience, Vaccaro was deeply inspired by his Philosophy of Policing<\/em> course, in which he learned about policing techniques utilized in impoverished communities. \u201cWe learned about this neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, where the NYPD tested out zero policy policing,\u201d he states, \u201cPeople were being arrested for the smallest infractions, which caused a deep divide between the people and the police as well as a divide in that community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>

Criminology and Criminal Justice Program<\/h2>

Check out our new interdisciplinary Criminology and Criminal Justice B.A. major<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Explore<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n

After graduating in May 2012 with a B.A. in psychology and a B.S. in sociology, Vaccaro moved on to graduate school at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, where his research focused on sexual violence prevention. He conducted some of his research at a maximum security prison in Pennsylvania. Using his prior experience and education to the fullest, Vaccaro now works for the NYPD in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn that he learned about in class. \u201cI now have the opportunity to work with police in the area taking a different approach to policing,\u201d he states, \u201cI assist with identifying people with mental health issues and engaging them to get treatment so they don\u2019t continue the cycle of crime.\u201d Most importantly, he says the skills he learned at URI help him approach his work with a very nuanced understanding in order to empathize with the community members\u2019 situations. \u201cIt\u2019s very empowering for individuals in the community with mental health issues to have positive interactions with the police,\u201d he states. To those looking to pursue a degree in the College of Arts and Sciences, Vaccaro has a lot of advice to give: \u201cTalk to your advisors; they have lots of knowledge on different classes you can take,\u201d he states, \u201cBe open-minded, get your pre-requisites in, don\u2019t be afraid to double major, and take a course in a field you\u2019re interested in. The more you\u2019re looking at different offerings, the more you\u2019re opened up to everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

~Written by Chase Hoffman ’21, Writing & Rhetoric and Anthropology double major<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in URI\u2019s hometown of Kingston, Rhode Island, John Vaccaro ’12 opted to attend the university closest to home for that and many other reasons. \u201cIt was convenient with my father working there,\u201d he says, \u201cand of course there was the family legacy since my older siblings attended. But I wanted to go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[43,233],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-criminology-and-criminal-justice","tag-sociology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5939,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions\/5939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}