Amy E. Lerman
Professor of Public Policy and Political Science; Director, Possibility Lab, University of California-Berkeley
Chapter Member: Bay Area SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Amy
Lerman's research is focused on issues of race, public opinion, and political behavior, especially as they relate to punishment and social inequality in America.
Contributions
How Harsh Policing and Mass Imprisonment Create Second-Class American Citizens
Key Findings Brief,
In the News
Quoted by in "New Study Looks at Suicide Rate of California Prison Guards," KCRA Sacramento, January 10, 2018.
Research discussed by "Why are Suicide Rates so High among Corrections Officers?," New York Post, January 9, 2018.
Quoted by Don Thompson in "California: Muchos Suicidios Entre Empleados Penitenciarios," Houston Chronicle, January 9, 2018.
Quoted by Don Thompson in "New Study Looks at California Prison Guards' Suicide Rate," SCNow, January 9, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "The Political Cost of a Heavy Police Presence?," Next City, February 19, 2014.
Opinion: "What Medicare Can Teach Us about the Future of Obamacare," Amy E. Lerman, Washington Post, November 26, 2013.
Publications
"Political Ideology, Skin Tone, and the Psychology of Candidate Evaluations" (with ). Public Opinion Quarterly 79, no. 1 (2015): 53-90.
Examines the role of political ideology in shaping black voters’ evaluations of political candidates’ race and skin tone. Challenges simplistic notions of black preference for descriptive representation.
Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control (with ). (University of Chicago Press, 2014).
Presents a host of evidence that the growth and culture of the American criminal justice system has important consequences for democratic life.
"Staying out of Sight? Concentrated Policing and Local Political Action" (with ). The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 651, no. 1 (2014): 202-219.
Shows that the concentration and character of police stops in New York City is highly predictive of patterns of local political engagement.
The Modern Prison Paradox: Politics, Punishment, and American Community (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Argues that the modern move toward more punitive prison culture has had deleterious consequences for the social communities of both inmates and correctional officers.
"The State of the Job: An Embedded Work Role Perspective on Prison Officer Attitudes" (with ). Punishment and Society 14, no. 5 (2012): 503-529.
Uses original surveys from California and Minnesota to analyze whether differences in the orientations of state correctional systems are reflected in the attitudes of workers who are tasked with the day-to-day oversight of state prisons.
"Political Consequences of the Carceral State" (with ). American Political Science Review 104, no. 4 (2010): 817-833.
Examines the effects of contact with police, courts, prisons and jails on Americans’ political attitudes and behavior.