Elizabeth M. "Becky" Pettit (born February 4, 1970) is an American sociologist with expertise in

demography Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and Population dynamics, dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups ...

. She has been a professor of sociology at the

University of Texas-Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, as well as an affiliate at its Population Research Center, since 2014. She is an advocate for

decarceration in the United States Decarceration in the United States involves government policies and community campaigns aimed at reducing the number of people held in custody or custodial supervision. Decarceration, the opposite of incarceration, also entails reducing the rate ...

Education

Pettit received her B.A.

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 1992. She went on to receive her M.A. and Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1997 and 1999, respectively.

Career

In 1999, Pettit joined the faculty of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

as an assistant professor of sociology, where she became an associate professor in 2007 and a full professor in 2011. For two years (2009-2011), she was the associate chair of the University of Washington's sociology department. In 2014, she left the University of Washington for the University of Texas-Austin.

Research

Pettit's research focuses on various aspects of

social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...

. For instance, in her 2012 book ''Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress'', she argues that

mass incarceration Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceratio ...

in the United States has distorted our perception of racial equality because government surveys tend to undercount prisoners. When, in this book, she added prisoners to these surveys, she found that the status of black Americans has not significantly improved since the 1960s. She has also studied the effects of incarceration on families and racial inequality. With

Bruce Western Bruce Prichart Western (born July 1, 1964) is an Australian-born American sociologist and a professor of sociology at Columbia University. Early life and education Western was born in Australia, to a white native Australian father who taught at ...

, she has also studied other social consequences of incarceration, such as decreased earnings for former prisoners.

Editorial activities

From 2011 to 2014, Pettit was the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of ''

Social Problems A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...

''. She is currently an advisory editor for ''Social Problems'' and a member of the editorial board of ''

American Sociological Review The ''American Sociological Review'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of sociology. It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the American Sociological Association. It was established in 1936. The editors- ...

''.

References

External links

Faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettit, Becky 1970 births Living people American sociologists American women sociologists Princeton University alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Washington faculty Academic journal editors 21st-century American women