In urging criminal justice reforms, a committee co-chaired by Bruce Western, Professor of Sociology and Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice, drew from detailed data on the rise of U.S. prison populations from 1973 to 2009.... Read more about 'Prisons are part of a poverty trap'

In recent years, many public and private institutions in cities have begun to collect large-scale electronic records on a wide range of behaviors and patterns of communication.  The advent of what some call “big data” provides a new set of opportunities to paint a comprehensive picture of cities, which has the potential to transform theoretical models of urban governance and social behavior.

Robert J. Sampson (Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences) is Principal Investigator on a grant from the National Science...

Under what conditions will men and women released from prison find work, unite with their families, and desist from crime? As incarceration - concentrated among the most disadvantaged - has climbed to historically high levels, these questions have become basic to understanding contemporary crime and poverty. The Boston Reentry Study, led by Bruce Western (Professor of Sociology and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy), Anthony Braga (...