ABOUT
Michael Campbell and his family live in Denver, Colorado and enjoy gardening, camping, hiking, sports, and good food. Michael was promoted to full professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver in 2024. His research focuses on the socioeconomic and historical forces that shape changes in criminal justice policy, especially punishment.
Michael earned his PhD from the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine in 2009. His work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Law & Society Review, Criminology, Punishment and Society and other sociological and criminological academic journals and has been acknowledged for awards by the American Society of Criminology, the Law & Society Association and the American Sociological Association. Grants from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and Charles Koch Foundation have supported these research projects. Michael also engages in consulting work, has testified before legislative committees, and has served on a legislative workgroup engaged in criminal justice reform for the Colorado legislature.You can view Michael’s Google Scholar page here.
Michael was recently awarded a Russell Sage Foundation residential fellowship beginning in September, 2025 where he and Heather Schoenfeld will write a book on the dynamics shaping state-level criminal justice reform.
CURRENT RESEARCH
His current research includes an extensive collaborative project, The Changing Tides of Mass Incarceration, with Heather Schoenfeld (of Boston University) that involves the study of state-level criminal justice reforms that affect correctional populations.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and Charles Koch Foundation, Michael, Heather and our research team have constructed case studies of state-level penal reforms in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Colorado. We have conducted analyses comparing and contrasting reforms across these state contexts to better understand the dynamics that shape penal change in the United States.
I have been awarded a residential fellowship by the Russell Sage Foundation to live in New York City and work with Heather on a book based on our findings. The fellowship will begin in September of 2025 and
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
2024 Schoenfeld, Heather, Kimberly Rhotan and Michael Campbell, “Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States,” Law & Social Inquiry. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2024.4
2024 Basseches, Joshua, Michael Campbell and Heather Schoenfeld (equal contributors), “Leveraging the Insights of Depth: A Staged Strategy for Qualitative Case Studies of American State-Level Policy.” Social Science Quarterly Vol 105(2): 359-373. First published online 2/22/2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13346
2023 Schoenfeld, Heather and Michael Campbell (equal contributors), “Early 21st Century Penal Reform: Four states’ responses to the problems of mass incarceration,” Law & Policy 45(4):482-506. First published online 6/18/23. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lapo.12226
2021 Williams, Josh and Michael Campbell. “Exploring the Time-Varying Determinants of State Spending on Corrections.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 37: 671-682.
2020 Campbell, Michael, Heather Schoenfeld and Paige Vaughn*. “Same old song and dance? An analysis of legislative activity in a period of penal reform.” Punishment & Society 22(4): 389-412.