Public and Private Law Enforcement, Police Training, Misconduct, Comparative Policing
Department Chairwoman
BA - Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
MA - Institute of Criminology, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
M.Phil. - John Jay College of Criminal Justice
PhD - City University of New York Graduate Center
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Biography
Maria (Maki) Haberfeld is a Professor of Police Science, in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. She was born in Poland and immigrated to Israel as a teenager. During her army service in the Israeli Defense Force, she was assigned to a special counter-terrorist unit that was created to prevent terrorist attacks in Israel. She left the Army at the rank of a Sergeant.
Prior to coming to John Jay she served in the Israel National Police, and left the force at the rank of Lieutenant. She also worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, in the New York Field Office, as a special consultant.
Her research interests and publications are in the areas of private and public law enforcement, specifically training, police integrity, and comparative policing (her research involves police departments in the U.S., Eastern and Western Europe, and Israel). She has also done some research in the area of white-collar crime, specifically organizational and individual corruption during the Communist era in Eastern Europe. For four years, 1997 through 2001, she has been a member of the research team, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, studying police integrity in three major police departments in the United States.
Between the years 1999 and 2003 she was also a Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Justice sponsored research project in Poland, where she studied the Polish National Police and its transformation to Community Oriented Policing. Her research in Poland focused on the balancing act between the public perceptions of the new police reform and rampant accusations of corruption and lack of integrity.
Her recent publications include a book on police training, titled "Critical Issues in Police Training" (2002), her co-edited book, titled "Contours of Police Integrity" (2004) features an overview of police misconduct in 14 countries, an edited volume of an Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement, the International Volume (2005) covers entires on police forces from over 120 countries, a book on 17 prominent police chiefs in the United States titled "Police Leadership" (2005) and her forthcoming, co-authored, book “Enhancing Police Integrity” (2006) depicts 3 case studies of police departments that are characterized by high levels of professional integrity.
For the last five years (2001-2006) she has been involved in developing, coordinating and teaching in a special training program for the New York City Police Department. Prof. Haberfeld has developed a graduate course, titled "Counter-terrorism policies for law enforcement" which is taught by her at John Jay, to the ranking officers of the New York Police Department.
