Christopher Uggen Talk

CJRC Institute for Excellence in Justice:  Criminal Records, Spillovers, and the Growing Stickiness of Public Labels

Presented by the Institute for Excellence in Justice on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at the Martin Luther King Lounge, Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Arts Center

Contemporary criminology offers compelling evidence that the distinction between “criminal” and “non-criminal” is largely a matter of time. Yet crime discourse and policy remain rooted in the notion of criminality as an immutable individual characteristic. This talk contrasts the fluidity in criminal behavior with the growing stickiness of public labels, drawing from experimental studies of criminal records on work and school outcomes, demographic analysis of changes in the population bearing such records, and their spillover effects on health care and other institutions. After summarizing some classic and emerging U.S. policy interventions, I conclude by discussing the Obama legacy for crime and justice and prospects for the future. 

Dr. Christopher Uggen is the Regents Professor and Martindale Chair in Sociology and Law at the Univerisity of Minnesota.

Chris Uggen is Regents Professor and Martindale Chair in Sociology and Law at the University of Minnesota. He studies crime, law, and justice, firm in the belief that sound research can help build a more just and peaceful world. With Jeff Manza, he wrote Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy, and his writing on felon voting, work and crime, and harassment and discrimination is frequently cited in media such as the New York Times, The Economist, and NPR. Current projects include a comparative study of reentry from different types of institutions, sexual harassment and employment discrimination, crime and justice after genocide, monetary sanctions, and the health effects of incarceration. His outreach and engagement projects include editing Contexts Magazine andTheSocietyPages.Org (both with Doug Hartmann), a book series and multimedia social science hub drawing one million readers per month. He is the incoming Vice President of the American Sociological Association and a fellow of the American Society of Criminology.