Karl Schonborn has earned a living using his voice as a public speaker, even though it once sounded nasal and snuffly as cleft-affected voices often do. Besides utilizing it to lecture as a professor of criminology, he’s used it to interview guests on TV shows and narrate soc-umentaries (sociologically-oriented documentaries).
Schonborn’s experience of being bullied and beat up as a child motivated him to study violence of all sorts—from schoolyard incidents to international ones. As a result, he’s written several books over the years, some with recommendations about how teachers, police—and even U.N. peacekeeping troops—can more effectively deal with violence. His latest, Privileged Killers, helps everyday people deal with violence-prone Dark Triad individuals in their lives.
He studied psychology as an undergrad premed, psychiatry in med school, and criminology in a sociology PhD program. After his schooling in the East, he returned home to the San Francisco Bay Area for a university professorship.
Over his career, Schonborn has mostly dedicated his teaching and research to finding ways to reduce violent crime as well as to make policing more humanitarian and less authoritarian. Among other things, Schonborn’s research has involved the study of criminals and in-the-trenches study of police officer and departmental behavior in crisis
situations.
Additionally, filmmaking and public service keep Schonborn invigorated. One of the many award-winning films he’s produced, Gang Signs, became a “free-rental” nationwide at Blockbuster Video. Many other works became featured programs at the Law Enforcement Television Network, LETN.
When not working, Schonborn enjoys painting, traveling abroad with his wife, and visiting their kids grandkids.
If you still want to know more about Schonborn, read on.
Random facts about Karl
- You might expect a product of Yale, Columbia, and Penn –and a student of violence and its management – to be one serious dude. However, his students know from painful experience that he’d like to be a stand-up comic in his next life.
- He’s nick-named his nine-pound rescue dog, Monte Blue, the Anti-Bully Warrior. You can see Monte in his Warrior cape here.
- In his youth, Karl circumnavigated the world for $880 — hitching rides on planes, trains, and mostly automobiles (he finagled passage on a tramp steamer too). He still loves to travel, but several years ago, he paid $880 to spend 2 nights in St. Petersburg, Russia. He had to pay upfront otherwise Russia would not grant him a visa.
- He dislikes snorkeling, ‘cuz he remembers when he, his wife, and their two kids all got seasick on a catamaran while snorkeling in Hawaii.
- Karl would never bungee jump or skydive. His many cleft surgeries left him with a healthy distaste for intensive care units. He dislikes their amenities.
- He only watches news on TV (the Superbowl and World Series count as news given his warped male sensibilities). Well, once in a while, a TV Special or a streaming movie at a friend’s house. Not a snob, but would rather be writing or painting.
