Bio

I am an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University Newark. Trained as a sociologist, I study how criminal justice systems respond to social, spatial, and economic changes like gentrification, suburbanization, and fiscal crises. I am currently analyzing how municipal funding for police and social services impacts crime differently. Another active research project analyzes how high concentrations of institutional landlords affect rents.

My scholarly work has appeared in Social Forces, the Annual Review of Sociology, Urban Studies, the British Journal of Criminology, and elsewhere. “Governing Through Police,” a study I co-authored with Adam Goldstein, won the American Society of Criminology’s Petersilia Award for the best article of 2020. My study “Policing Gentrification” was among the five most downloaded articles from City & Community in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. My general-interest writing has appeared in Slate, the New York Daily News, the Appeal, and AM New York.

Previously, I was an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Denver and in the Sociology and Criminology & Law Department at the University of Florida. I received my PhD from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Before getting my PhD, I worked as a paralegal and before that as an elementary school teacher. I grew up in a suburb outside Denver. In my spare time I like to hike in mountains and walk in cities.