Ian T. Adams

Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina-Columbia

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About Ian

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Utah. I study public administration; policing; and emotional labor theory. I am particularly interested in the consequences of work-place surveillance on front-line public employees. That line of research has been strongly motivated by the example of body-worn cameras in policing. I am a cross-disciplinary scholar; and have been honored to be recognized as a 2018 American Society of Public Administration Founders’ Fellow; and a 2020 doctoral fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

The Need for Nuanced Research on the Uses and Misuses of Body-Worn Police Cameras

Key Findings Brief, November 2018

In the News

Research discussed by Brian Carlson, in "More Police Embrace the Growing Demand for Officer Body Cameras," ABC 4 Utah, February 9, 2015.

Publications

"Visibility is a Trap: The Ethics of Police Body-Worn Cameras and Control" (with Sharon Mastracci). Administrative Theory & Praxis 39, no. 4 (2018): 313-328.

Critiques the increased transparency brought about by body-worn cameras to broadly explore the impact of increased exposure on victims. Concludes by proposing ethical policy principles to limit the harm the new technology could pose to vulnerable victims of domestic and sexual violence.

"'That's What the Money's for': Alienation and Emotional Labor in Public Service" (with Sharon Mastracci). Administrative Theory & Praxis (2018).

Argues that public servants risk becoming alienated due to the unsupported emotional labor demands of their jobs, and that they, in turn, alienate citizens from their government, resulting in harms such as growing distrust of government employees.