Crime and Punishment
The study of crime and punishment has become increasingly central to our understanding of how society works. Crime varies widely across time and place, for example, and is deeply intertwined with multiple forms of social stratification. Societal reactions to crime in the form of mass incarceration have in turn been linked to increasing racial and economic inequality. This research cluster draws together faculty in sociology and across the university to address these and other fundamental questions about crime and its control. The Program in Criminal Justice at the Kennedy School is a key institutional hub for intellectual dialogue.
News related to Crime & Punishment
Symposium on Patterson's Paradox of Freedom Published
The European Journal of Sociology has published the remarks delivered at a panel discussion on the life and work of Stone Program faculty affiliate Orlando Patterson, the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. This event took place at...
Ellis Monk awarded ASA Theory Section Award
American Sociology Association's Theory Section’s Lewis A Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda-Setting awarded to Professor Ellis Monk. Please see more about the award here .
The Monk Skin Tone Scale now held in permanent collection of UK museum
Learn more about the Monk Skin Tone Scale, and the display at National Science and Media Museum Sound and Vision galleries.
2026 Sociology Undergraduate Thesis Prizes and Academic Awards
Students receive Fulton, Hoopes, Cummings, and Rose prizes for outstanding thesis work; Five students inducted to Phi Beta Kappa; Three students accepted to American Sociological Association 2026 Honors Program. Read more here.
Ellis Monk's research highlighted in The Harvard Gazette.
Lives saved by sociologist’s fix for skin tone bias. An answer to the dangers of colorblind healthcare. The Monk Skin Tone scale, devised in 2019 by Professor Ellis Monk, helps create more accurate medical diagnostic tools for patients with dark skin.
Related Publications
Winship, C., & O’Brien, D. (2016). The Gains of Greater Granularity: The Presence and Persistence of Problem Properties in Urban Neighborhoods. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 33(3), 649-674.
Winship, C., & O’Brien, D. (2016). The Gains of Greater Granularity: The Presence and Persistence of Problem Properties in Urban Neighborhoods. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 33(3), 649-674.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1995). Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life. Harvard University Press.
Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1995). Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life. Harvard University Press.