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Robert J. Sampson

Robert J. Sampson

Award Badge
Social Sciences and Humanities
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
112
Citations
109523
World Ranking
41
National Ranking
24

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in United States Leader Award
  • 2018 - Fellow of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  • 2014 - Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, American Sociological Association
  • 2007 - Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
  • 2006 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2005 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Overview

Robert J. Sampson is affiliated with Harvard University in the United States and specializes in social sciences, with a key focus on sociology and political science. Their research covers several interconnected fields, including general health professions, health, epidemiology, and health, toxicology, and mutagenesis.

The scientist's work primarily addresses topics related to urban environments, crime, and social disparities. Among the main topics of their research are:

  • Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
  • Crime Patterns and Interventions
  • Homelessness and Social Issues
  • Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Health disparities and outcomes
  • Gun Ownership and Violence Research
  • Environmental Justice and Health Disparities

Robert J. Sampson has published extensively, with recent papers that include:

  • "Triple Disadvantage: Neighborhood Networks of Everyday Urban Mobility and Violence in U.S. Cities," 2020, American Sociological Review
  • "The Birth Lottery of History: Arrest over the Life Course of Multiple Cohorts Coming of Age, 1995-2018," 2021, American Journal of Sociology
  • "From residence to movement: The nature of racial segregation in everyday urban mobility," 2021, Urban Studies
  • "Neighborhood socioeconomic inequality based on everyday mobility predicts COVID-19 infection in San Francisco, Seattle, and Wisconsin," 2022, Science Advances
  • "Social change and cohort differences in group-based arrest trajectories over the last quarter-century," 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Their frequent co-authors include:

  • Roland Neil (8 collaborations)
  • David S. Kirk (7 collaborations)
  • Daniel S. Nagin (5 collaborations)
  • Rebecca Bucci (5 collaborations)
  • Brian L. Levy (4 collaborations)

Robert J. Sampson publishes regularly in venues such as:

  • CrimRxiv
  • Harvard Dataverse
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Annual Review of Criminology
  • Science Advances

Throughout their career, Robert J. Sampson has received several awards recognizing membership and fellowship in prestigious organizations:

  • Fellow of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2018)
  • Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, American Sociological Association (2014)
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2007)
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2006)
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005)

Best Publications

  • Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy

    Robert J. Sampson;Stephen W. Raudenbush;Felton James Earls

  • Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory

    Robert J. Sampson;W. Byron Groves

  • ASSESSING "NEIGHBORHOOD EFFECTS": Social Processes and New Directions in Research

    Robert J. Sampson;Jeffrey D. Morenoff;Thomas Gannon-Rowley

  • Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life.

    Robert A. Silverman;Robert J. Sampson;John H. Laub

  • Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods

    Robert J. Sampson;Stephen W. Raudenbush

  • Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect

    Robert J. Sampson

  • Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children

    Robert J. Sampson;Jeffrey D. Morenoff;Felton Earls

  • Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence

    Jeffrey D. Morenoff;Robert J. Sampson;Stephen W. Raudenbush

  • Shared beginnings, divergent lives : delinquent boys to age 70

    John H. Laub;Robert J. Sampson

  • Understanding Desistance from Crime

    John H. Laub;Robert J. Sampson

  • Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality

    Robert J. Sampson;William J. Wilson

  • Seeing Disorder: Neighborhood Stigma and the Social Construction of Broken Windows

    Robert J. Sampson;Stephen W. Raudenbush

  • Legal Cynicism and (Subcultural?) Tolerance of Deviance: The Neighborhood Context of Racial Differences

    Robert J. Sampson;Dawn Jeglum Bartusch

  • Crime and Deviance Over the Life Course: The Salience of Adult Social Bonds

    Robert J. Sampson;John H. Laub

  • Trajectories of change in criminal offending: Good marriages and the desistance process.

    John H. Laub;Daniel S. Nagin;Robert J. Sampson

  • LIFE-COURSE DESISTERS? TRAJECTORIES OF CRIME AMONG DELINQUENT BOYS FOLLOWED TO AGE 70*

    Robert J. Sampson;John H. Laub

  • TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE COURSE: WHY CHANGE MATTERS TO THE STUDY OF CRIME*

    John H. Laub;Robert J. Sampson

  • A Life-Course View of the Development of Crime

    Robert J. Sampson;John H. Laub

  • Urban black violence: The effect of male joblessness and family disruption

    Robert J. Sampson

  • The Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Adolescent Development

    Delbert S. Elliott;William Julius Wilson;David Huizinga;Robert J. Sampson

  • Urban poverty and the family context of delinquency: a new look at structure and process in a classic study

    Robert J. Sampson;John H. Laub

  • Crime in the Making

    Robert J. Sampson;John H. Laub

Frequent Co-Authors

John H. Laub
John H. Laub University of Maryland, College Park
Stephen W. Raudenbush
Stephen W. Raudenbush University of Chicago
Jeffrey D. Morenoff
Jeffrey D. Morenoff University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Janet L. Lauritsen
Janet L. Lauritsen University of Missouri–St. Louis
Terrie E. Moffitt
Terrie E. Moffitt Duke University
Per-Olof H. Wikström
Per-Olof H. Wikström University of Cambridge
Robert D. Mare
Robert D. Mare University of California, Los Angeles
Felton Earls
Felton Earls Harvard University
Avshalom Caspi
Avshalom Caspi Duke University
Douglas S. Massey
Douglas S. Massey Princeton University

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