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SCSU professor completes book
SCSU professor Kathleen Sweet will be using her new book to teach "Aviation Security," a fall criminal justice course.
Sweet, an assistant professor in the department of criminal justice, published "Terrorism and Airport Security" in March. She wrote the book, she said, because there was no book to go with her aviation securi�ty course. Following the events of Sept. 11, the book is timely, but she said that was coincidental.
"I started writing the book a year ahead of that," Sweet said. Since then, she said, airport security has improved, but "not nearly enough."
Sweet's background includes being a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. She was in the military until 1999. She began her military career with the Judge Advocate General's department, and later taught at the Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Sweet also served as Assistant Air Attache to the Russian Federation, and worked as an intelligence officer. She has lived in Russia, Germany, Japan and the Philippines.
"You certainly learn more about a coun�try when you live there," she said. "We had the opportunity to experience firsthand liv�ing in an overseas environment. I've actu�ally lived most of my life somewhere else (outside the United States)."
Sweet came to SCSU in Sept. 1999. This fall will be the first time she has a book to use with the airport security course, and first time she will include the topic of terrorism in the course. She added the topic of terrorism, she said, to give students an additional perspective on aviation security.
"In the past," Sweet said, "it's just been aviation law and airport security, or just plain airport security. I added the terrorism stuff to give the course more academic rigor."
The aviation security class covers far more than just terrorism. Sweet's book covers everything from hijacking to securi�ty screening, cargo security, technology improvements and health concerns. It also addresses topics like assault and air rage.
"There's other security issues at airports besides terrorists," Sweet said. "People blow up airplanes and engage in criminal misconduct for other reasons besides ter�rorism. There are more aspects to it than the international terrorist movement."
Brian Cremin, managing director of the Dublin, Ireland, security firm Crime Management Group, which specializes in assisting companies experiencing threats, reviewed Sweet's book.
"Her approach, particularly the well-documented references to current statutes and case law in this area, will be of immense benefit, not just to students but to practitioners, particularly those involved in consultancy within the aviation and air�freight industries, or as corporate security managers in similar fields," Cremin wrote.
Outside criminal justice. Sweet recom�mends the course to any student with a major or minor in aviation management or operations.
"It's going to be just another part of air operations," she said. "There's crime in an airport just like there's crime everywhere else."
Sweet's popular course, "International Security and Terrorism," was canceled for the coming fall semester. She said she plans to resubmit her canceled terrorism course again this summer, and hopes to have it available for spring 2003 semester.
"The terrorism course gives people a much, much broader perspective on why we're suffering from terrorism in this coun�try," she said, "not just in this country but around the world."
Eric O'Link can be reached at: [email protected]
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