Department of Sociology

Americans often pay for their crimes twice — first with a prison sentence, then with a lifetime of debt many will never be able to escape.

The College of Arts & Sciences awarded its 2016 Graduate Medal to three exceptional graduate students.

The United States has reinstated a broad system of debtors’ prisons, in effect making it a crime to be poor. Alexes Harris, associate professor of sociology at the UW, is quoted.

"A debtor’s prison of court fines and fees needs to be reformed," writes The Seattle Times Editorial Board. Alexes Harris, associate professor of sociology at the UW, is quoted.

UW professor Alexes Harris' new book examines how fines and fees keep people imprisoned long after their sentence is through.

This year, the annual Airbnb conference, OpenAir, will focus on a different challenge for the company and the tech industry: diversity and inclusion.

A new book by the UW's Alexes Harris (sociology) chronicles how scores of former inmates and the people they harmed are jointly cheated by a cyclical and cynical state-sponsored debt spiral.

Airbnb banned a host in North Carolina Wednesday after he used racist language to tell a woman who had just booked a room she was not welcome because she was black.

One sentence in a 1986 mass-market magazine continues to sway court cases involving sex offenders.

Statisticians at the University of Washington developed the first model for projecting population that factors in the vagaries of migration.

When convicted of a crime in America, it's not just prison time you may face — there are fines, fees and other cash penalties, too. And when you get out, they'll be waiting.

University of Washington, Jennifer Laird, wrote a widely cited dissertation, examining the effects of public-sector layoffs on different races

The study looked at rates of foster care nationwide and found that states with more punitive criminal justice systems tended to remove children from their homes far more often.

There is evidence that suggests non-monogamous relationships can be just as beneficial. Pepper Schwartz, professor of sociology at the UW, is quoted. 

"People are wired for love, that's why they keep coming back, despite heartbreaks and losses," says Pepper Schwartz, professor of sociology at the UW.