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Sentencing Reform in an Era of Racialized Mass Incarceration

November 3, 2016

Doctoral fellow Alix Winter, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology & Social Policy, and Matthew Clair, a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology, respond to the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission's invitation to comment on issues relating to sentencing policies and practices for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Winter and Clair provide "a brief overview of sociological research on mass incarceration, sentencing practices, and racial/ethnic minorities’ disproportionate contact with criminal justice institutions," drawing the Commission's attention to "empirical research pertaining to potential sentencing practices, policies, and principles that may assist the Commonwealth in reducing racial/ethnic sentencing disparities". They then draw on this research to make specific recommendations.

Clair and Winter co-authored a related academic article, “How Judges Think about Racial Disparities: Situational Decision-Making in the Criminal Justice System," published in Criminology earlier this year. Learn more about their work at their homepages:
scholar.harvard.edu/alixwinter
scholar.harvard.edu/matthewclair



Chasing Electoral Ghosts: We looked at 130 million ballots from the 2012 election and found practically zero evidence of fraud.

November 7, 2016

Slate | By Sharad Goel (Stanford), Marc Meredith (University of Pennsylvania), Michael Morse (Ph.D. candidate in Government, J.D. candidate at Yale Law School), David Rothschild (Microsoft Research), and Houshmand Shirani-Mehr (Stanford).
View the research



What This Means, How This Happened, What To Do Now

November 9, 2016

Current Affairs
By Nathan J. Robinson, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy.



Seeing Red in Trump's America

November 10, 2016

Radio OpenSource | Among this week's guests, Nathan J. Robinson, Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy.



Is the American Dream Fading?

December 9, 2016

Pacific Standard | A conversation with Robert Manduca (Ph.D. student in Sociology & Social Policy), one of the authors of the economic mobility study making waves this week. Learn more about Robert Manduca's work: robertmanduca.com



Monica Bell guests on Undisclosed

December 22, 2016

Undisclosed (S2, Addendum 21) | Monica Bell, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology & Social Policy, talks class, race, and geography and how these shape trust/distrust in the criminal justice system. On the criminal justice podcast Undisclosed. Learn more about Monica Bell's research at her homepage: scholar.harvard.edu/bell 



Yes, marches can make a difference. It depends on these three factors.

January 27, 2017

Washington Post | By Shom Mazumder, Ph.D. candidate in Government. It turns out that social science has a lot to say about which protests are likely to be effective. Here's what Mazumder's research found. Read more about his work at his website:
smazumder.me



When Do Renters Behave Like Homeowners? High Rent, Price Anxiety, and NIMBYism

February 7, 2017

JCHS Housing Perspectives | By Michael Hankinson, Ph.D. candidate in Government & Social Policy. Hankinson's findings, "based on new national-level experimental data and city-specific behavioral data....help explain why it is so hard to build new housing in expensive cities even when there is citywide support for that housing."  Read the full paper in the Joint Center for Housing Studies Working Paper series, and learn more about Hankinson's work at his website.
mhankinson.com



Police Reform and the Dismantling of Legal Estrangement

May 16, 2017

Yale Law Journal | By Monica C. Bell, PhD candidate in Sociology & Social Policy and a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School. Bell joins the faculty of Yale Law School as Associate Professor of Law in fall 2017. Read more about Monica Bell's work at her homepage: ​​​​​
scholar.harvard.edu/bell



The CFPB Is Making Government More Accountable. The GOP Wants to Stop It

June 9, 2017

Washington Monthly | By Barbara Kiviat, PhD candidate in Sociology & Social Policy. The Financial CHOICE Act would remove the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s popular consumer complaints database from public view. At a time when many Americans feel government is unaccountable and out of touch with the day-to-day lives of everyday people, Kiviat argues, "Keeping complaints visible to the full American public, and not just to government bureaucrats, represents one of the more innovative mechanisms of accountability to emerge from federal government in recent years."

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