Ray Surette has a doctorate in criminology from Florida State University and is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Central Florida. His crime and media research interests revolve around the media's effects on perceptions of crime and justice, criminogenic media, and criminal justice policies. He has published numerous articles and books on media, crime, and criminal justice topics and is internationally recognized as a scholar in the area. He has published research on the development of public information officers in criminal justice agencies, crime and justice infotainment programming, copycat crime, the effects of news coverage of high profile trials on similarly charged… non-publicized trials and on police recruits, the effects of news coverage of corrections on municipal jail population trends, media oriented terrorism, and the use of computer-aided camera surveillance systems in law enforcement. He is currently working on a book on copycat crime.