DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

Area(s) of Interest

Social Networks, Urban Neighborhoods, Gun Violence, Street Gangs, and Policing

Other Roles

Director for the Institute for Policy Research

Faculty Director, Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science (CORNERS) 

Biography

Andrew Papachristos is a Professor of Sociology and Faculty Fellow at Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research, and the Faculty Director of Corners: the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science. He is a Chicago native and one of the world’s leading experts at applying network science to the study of crime, violence, policing, and urban neighborhoods. Papachristos has more than fifteen years of experience working in the area of engaged-research in Chicago having worked with community groups, state and local criminal justice agencies, schools, hospitals, city governments, and the federal government. Papachristos’ research and evaluation of Project Safe Neighborhoods, Chicago’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, and CureViolence have been widely cited and recognized as models for engaged research and evaluation in the area of gun violence prevention and reduction programs.

Papachristos is also in the process of completing a manuscript on the evolution of black street gangs and politics in Chicago from the 1950s to the early 2000s. An author of more than 50 articles, Papachristos’ work has appeared in journals such as JAMA, The American Journal of Sociology, Criminology, and The American Journal of Public Health; publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Chicago Tribune have also covered his work extensively. Papachristos has received numerous awards, including The National Science Foundation’s Early CAREER Award and the American Society of Criminology’s “Young Scholar” Award. Prior to arriving at Northwestern, Papachristos was a Professor of Sociology at Yale University and Founding Director of The Policy Lab. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.