Critics have challenged that academics in the fields of criminal justice and criminology inadequately impact society due to their focus drifting from research and teaching practices that make a broader difference. Though the field produces research that sometimes affects policy and often directs students towards successful and fulfilling careers, there is legitimacy to the claim that faculty energies are only partially tied to meaningful difference-making efforts. If criminology fails to successfully focus and, thus, fails to make a difference, all members of the profession bear a degree of responsibility. However, there are numerous structural factors that serve to distract, redirect, and hinder faculty members from successfully serving their students and broader society via their research and teaching. Put simply, “academia shrugs.” It fails to adequately reward impactful work while creating obstacles and tasks with no meaningful significance. Using Ayn Rand’s, 1957 novel as a framework, the destruction of motivation in the field is discussed before exploring bureaucracies, practices, and mindsets that weaken the field’s ability to foster success. Specifically, the work identifies administrative bloat, academic redundancies, accreditation dichotomies, overinvestment in faculty governance, biased research, piecemeal publishing, and arcane teaching evaluation practices as contributing to the problem. Broader concerns about the field’s effectiveness are remedied, not by retreating to Galt’s Gulch or engaging in a strike of the mind, but by eliminating these and other similar factors.

批评家们质疑，刑事司法和犯罪学领域的学者对社会的影响不足，因为他们的研究重点从研究和教学实践中转移了出来，而这种研究和教学实践产生了更大的变化。尽管该领域的研究有时会影响政策，并经常指导学生走向成功和充实的职业，但有人称教师的力量仅部分与有意义的差异化工作联系在一起是合法的。如果犯罪学未能成功地聚焦并因此无法有所作为，则该行业的所有成员都应承担一定程度的责任。但是，有许多结构性因素可分散，重定向和阻碍教职员工通过其研究和教学为学生和更广泛的社会成功服务。简而言之，“学术性耸耸肩。”它无法充分奖励有影响力的工作，同时创造出毫无意义的障碍和任务。以艾伦·兰德（Ayn Rand）1957年的小说为框架，讨论了该领域动机的消灭，然后再探讨削弱该领域促进成功的官僚主义，做法和思维方式。具体而言，该工作确定了行政膨胀，学术冗余，认证二分法，对教师治理的过度投资，有偏见的研究，零星出版和奥秘的教学评估实践，这些都是造成该问题的原因。纠正了对该领域有效性的更广泛的担忧，而不是撤退到高尔特峡谷或动脑筋，而是消除了这些和其他类似因素。