ABOUT
Michael Campbell and his wife live in Denver, Colorado with their two daughters. They enjoy gardening, camping, hiking, sports, and good food. Michael is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver and his research focuses on the socioeconomic and historical forces that shape changes in criminal justice policy, especially punishment.
Michael received his PhD from the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine. 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.You can view Michael’s Google Scholar page here. Michael also engages in consulting work, conducting research for non-profit organizations and other groups interested in criminal justice issues.
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. Over the next three years, Michael and Heather will be comparing and contrasting reforms across these state contexts to better understand the dynamics that shape penal change in the United States. We have currently published two articles based on the project: “Same old song and dance? An analysis of legislative activity in a period of reform,” in Punishment and Society in 2020 (Vol 22:4) and “Early 21st Century Penal Reform: Four states’ responses to the problems of mass incarceration,” in Law & Policy. We are currently working on multiple analyses, are writing two manuscripts for publication in academic journals, and plan to work on a book manuscript this coming year.