Christopher J. Uggen (born 1964) is a Regents professor and Distinguished McKnight Professor of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where he also holds the Martindale Chair in Sociology. Uggen is best known for his work on

public criminology In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

, desistance from crime and the life course, crime in the workplace,

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

, and the effects of

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 ...

, including Felon disenfranchisement, reentry,

recidivism Recidivism (; from ''recidive'' and ''ism'', from Latin ''recidīvus'' "recurring", from ''re-'' "back" and ''cadō'' "I fall") is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of th ...

, and

inequality Inequality may refer to: Economics * Attention inequality, unequal distribution of attention across users, groups of people, issues in etc. in attention economy * Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups * ...

Background and early education

Uggen attended the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

for undergraduate and graduate school, earning his PhD in 1995.

Career

Uggen began his studies at University of Minnesota in 1995, and was chair of the University of Minnesota sociology department from 2006 to 2012. Uggen gained recognition in the early 2000s for his research on work opportunities and recidivism. He went on to author a 2003 ''

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- ...

'' article with sociologist

Jeff Manza Jeff Manza is an American sociologist and professor of sociology at New York University. He is a political sociologist, known for his work on voting behavior, public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting ...

, "Democratic Contraction: Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States," which gained significant attention after finding that the

2000 United States presidential election The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial United States presidential election, presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican Party (United States), Republican candidate George W. Bush, the gover ...

could have gone to

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

if felons were not disenfranchised. Uggen and Manza went on to author "Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy." They found that US ex-felons who voted in the 1996 US election were much less likely to have committed crimes in the four years following the election. Uggen's research on workplace authority and sexual harassment, incarceration and health,

race in the United States criminal justice system Race in the United States criminal justice system refers to the unique experiences and disparities in the United States in regard to the policing and prosecuting of various races. There have been different outcomes for different racial groups i ...

, employer discrimination against felons, and other

collateral consequences of criminal conviction Collateral consequences of criminal conviction are the additional civil state penalties, mandated by statute, that attach to a criminal conviction. They are not part of the direct consequences of criminal conviction, such as prison, fines, or pro ...

have been influential both in and out of the sociology discipline. Uggen was expected to assume the office of vice president of the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...

in August 2017, and has received the 2016

SUNY Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

Hindelang Speaker Award for career contributions to criminology.

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people American criminologists University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Minnesota faculty People from West St. Paul, Minnesota {{US-sociologist-stub