Christopher Muller
Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Christopher
Muller's research focuses on the political economy of incarceration in the United States from Reconstruction to the present; with a particular focus on how agricultural labor markets; migration; and struggles over land and labor have affected incarceration and racial and class inequality in incarceration. He has also written on the causes and effects of environmental inequality and inequality in death from infectious disease.
Contributions
Mass Imprisonment and Growing Distrust in the Law
Key Findings Brief,
In the News
Quoted by Arthur Delaney in "Lead Water Pipes Linked To Higher Murder Rates," Huffington Post, April 20, 2016.
Publications
"Mass Imprisonment and Trust in the Law" (with ). The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 651, no. 1 (2014): 139-158.
Demonstrates that trust in the law has declined with the rise in the imprisonment rate and the increasing prevalence of incarceration in African-American communities.
"Mass Incarceration, Macrosociology, and the Poor" (with ). The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 647, no. 1 (2013): 166-189.
Shows how employment among very low-skilled men and the legitimacy of the courts declined with the increase in the incarceration rate.
"Mass Imprisonment and Inequality in Health and Family Life" (with ). Annual Review of Law and Social Science 8 (2012): 11-30.
Discusses the challenges of studying how increasing imprisonment has affected families and population health.
"Northward Migration and the Rise of Racial Disparity in American Incarceration, 1880-1950" American Journal of Sociology 118, no. 2 (2012): 281-326.
Connects the historical increase in racial inequality in incarceration to the Great Migration.