My research uses mixed methods to interrogate the politics of the U.S. criminal justice system across three complementary strands. First, my dissertation uses in-depth interviews to examine the working practices of local crime journalists, whose daily decisions shape audience perceptions of safety and punishment. Second, I analyze how contact with the criminal justice system—ranging from police stops to incarceration—alters political attitudes and civic engagement among affected communities. Finally, I evaluate the real-world consequences of criminal justice policies using administrative data and quasi-experimental designs.

This work has produced publications in venues including the American Political Science Review, Sociological Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Refereed Articles

6. Clickbait Crime News? Metrics and Professional Authority in Local Newsrooms. Sociological Science (forthcoming), 2026.

5. Rethinking Repeatability in Observational Social Science. Sociological Methods and Research (conditionally accepted), 2026. (with Ari Galper and Nic Fishman).

• Best Graduate Student Paper Award, ASA Methodology Section, 2026

4. Can Speed Cameras Make Streets Safer? Quasi-Experimental Evidence From New York City. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025 (with Aaron Stagoff and Brenden Beck).

3. Solitary Confinement, Parole, and Criminalization. Journal of Criminal Justice, 2025 (with Claudia Anderson, Samuel Donahue, Jessica Simes, and Bruce Western).

2. Police Violence Reduces Trust in the Police Among Black Residents. PLoS ONE, 2024 (with Gerard Torrats-Espinosa).

1, Ticketing and Turnout: The Participatory Consequences of Low-Level Police Contact. American Political Science Review, 2022 (with Kevin Morris).

Revise and Resubmit

“Which Deaths Count? Debating Homicide Coverage Amidst Newsroom Scarcity.” Revise and resubmit.

“Beyond Police Stenography: How Disembedding Enables Critical Crime News Work.” Revise and resubmit.

Works Under Review

“Mobilization or Retreat? Racialized Patterns of Political Behavior in U.S. Jails and Prisons” (with David Knight).

“Uses and Misuses of Large Language Models in Qualitative Research.” [Preprint URL]

“Sundown Towns, Durable Exclusion, and the Legacy of Northern Racial Regimes.” (with Taylor B. Alarcon and Rory Kramer). [Preprint URL]

Works in Progress

“Police Raids Erode Civic Cooperation and Institutional Trust.” (with Gerard Torrats-Espinosa).

“Traffic Policing Patterns in Former Sundown Towns.” (with Taylor B. Alarcon and Rory Kramer)