John McMullan

Saint Mary’s University

John L. McMullan is Professor of Sociology and Criminology and a former Department Chairperson and Criminology Graduate Studies Coordinator at Saint Mary’s University. Professor McMullan has held previous positions at the University of British Columbia and at Vanier College. He is the author of seven books, five government reports and over fifty academic articles on business crime, historical criminology, criminal organization, criminological theory, law enforcement, social regulation, media, crime and justice, and gambling and social policy. Dr. McMullan is a multiple research award holder and he has served on many university, academic, professional, and government commissions, councils and boards. He is a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia. Professor McMullan has held visiting positions at Cambridge University and The London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom and at Simon Fraser University and Concordia University in Canada. At present Dr. McMullan is researching the role of public inquiries and corporate disasters and the socio-legal context of new forms of permitted gambling. He just completed a book on the Westray mine disaster entitled News, Truth and Crime: The Westray Disaster and its aftermath, (2005). His most recent research project is on Commercial Advertising, Social Regulation and Adolescent Gambling.

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  • News, Truth and Crime

    The Westray Disaster and Its Aftermath

    By John McMullan     January 2005

    The “truth” behind the Westray mine disaster remains a highly contested matter. This book is a study of how the media represented the events surrounding Westray. The absence of investigative reporting in favour of sensational stories about accidents and the pain and suffering of the bereaved obscures the truth. More importantly it presents a false truth so the question, “What happened at Westray?” remains largely unanswered. The answer to the question, “Who is responsible?” has been lost in the cover-up; a cover-up aided and abetted by the news reporting.

  • Crimes, Laws and Communities

    By John McMullan, David C. Perrier, Stephen Smith and Peter D. Swan     January 1997

    In this book, McMullan and his colleagues have provided much needed information and analysis on “unconventional” crimes by researching fire for profit, illegal fishing and business crime in Atlantic Canada. The three essays fill an information gap left by scant media reports, conflicting government statistics and, in the case of crimes of capital, wilfully concealed information.

  • Beyond the Limits of the Law

    Corporate Crime and Law and Order

    By John McMullan     January 1992

    McMullan attributes corporate crime to a process whereby the accumulation of capital takes precedence over human safety. He concludes that “the scope and seriousness of corporate crime is enormous, far exceeding that of conventional crime.”