Department of Sociology & Crime, Law and Justice
Department of Sociology & Crime, Law and Justice
211 Oswald Tower
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814-865-2527
Fax: 814-863-7216
About the Graduate Programs
Penn State's Department of Sociology and Criminology is committed to vigorous research and excellence in graduate education. In the most recent NSF Survey of Research and Development Expenditures, Penn State Sociology is ranked #1 nationally. The Criminology graduate program is one of the nation’s top five programs in criminology and criminal justice. Penn State’s Demography program is ranked in the top five population science graduate training programs in the United States by the 2006 U.S News and World Report.
The hallmark of the Department is its commitment to rigor in the analysis of social phenomena. The Department offers challenging and rewarding programs of graduate study toward Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Sociology and Criminology. Students who pursue the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology or criminology are exposed to an exciting, intellectual and professional environment. Though located in a major university, our graduate programs remain intimate in scale. A low student-to-faculty ratio promotes frequent interaction with leading scholars in theory, methods, and a wide range of substantive specialties.
The programs attract students from all over the world and from a variety of academic backgrounds. Some students enter with professional experience; others have completed M.A. degrees elsewhere before coming to Penn State or enter the graduate programs directly upon completing their undergraduate work. This diversity contributes to a stimulating learning environment.
Academically, our students are very talented. In recent years, they have finished first and second in the campus wide Graduate Research Exhibition, held Graduate School and interdisciplinary studies fellowships, and won a University teaching award. At the national level, their abilities are reflected in the following accomplishments since 1996: more than one hundred papers presented at professional conferences, and more than fifty journal articles and book chapters published, including pieces in the American Sociological Review, Demography, Sociological Quarterly, Journal of Marriage and the Family, and Social Science Quarterly. Penn State sociology students have an outstanding record of dissertation support from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Educational Research Association. A substantial number of students are on fellowships or traineeships funded by NSF, the National Institutes of Health, and the Mellon Foundation.
Students may pursue one of seven areas of specialization or some combination of these areas. Penn State also offers the unique opportunity for students to earn a dual-Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography. Students in any area of specialization may earn a Certificate in Quantitative Methods.
If you are seeking an outstanding graduate education to prepare you for an academic or professional career in Sociology or Criminology, please take a look at the detailed program information below and our recent graduate course offerings. In addition, please read our graduate program guides: Guide to Graduate Study in Criminology and Crime, Law and Justice; Guide to Graduate Study in Sociology.
Areas of Specialization
We encourage you to contact our graduate officers.
For further information about graduate study in Sociology
please contact Dr. George Farkas at gfarkas@pop.psu.edu.
For further information about graduate study in Criminology
please contact Dr. Eric Silver at exs44@psu.edu.
The Graduate Program in criminology and crime, law and justice
Penn State's Criminology and Crime, Law, and Justice graduate program is one of the nation's top programs in criminology and criminal justice. During the last four academic years alone, our students have won five national paper competitions, three nationally competitive dissertation fellowships, and two competitive pre-doctoral fellowships from the National Consortium on Violence Research. These accomplishments demonstrate the high-quality advanced education that we offer to students interested in careers involving research, teaching, and scholarship.
The graduate program provides training in theory, methods, statistics, and substantive issues related to crime and its control. For students with strong interests in methodology and statistics, we also offer a graduate certificate in quantitative criminology. Related departments (such as political science, psychology, economics, history, and statistics) provide a wide range of graduate courses of interest to Criminology students.
Our program is unique. Like the best criminology graduate programs in the country, we possess a large faculty with specialized expertise in criminology and criminal justice. Unlike those departments, however, we possess a strong theoretical and methodological foundation due to our close relationship with an outstanding sociology program. Indeed, because we are part of Penn State's prestigious Department of Sociology and Criminology, our students can receive Ph.D.'s in sociology and pursue careers as sociologists. Moreover, because we are also an interdisciplinary program incorporating a broad range of perspectives on criminology and crime and justice, our students can receive Ph.D.'s in crime, law, and justice while obtaining a top-quality education from a major research university.
Research
 |
Faculty members are conducting research on a wide range of topics in criminology and crime, law,
and justice, including: justice system decision making (such as sentencing); relations of gender, race, and age to crime; violence and victimization; violence and mental disorder, criminal careers; organized crime; deterrence; communities and crime; juvenile delinquency; and evaluation of programs and policies in the justice system.
Faculty research has been or is supported by funding from the National Institute of Justice, the National Institute of Mental Health, The Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Faculty
Faculty members have authored or edited many books, including: Social and Psychological Consequences of Violent Victimization, Violence and Gender Reexamined, Rethinking Risk Assessment: The MacArthur Study of Mental Disorder and Violence, Social Worlds of Sentencing, The American Prison, The Cycle of Juvenile Justice, The Fence, Poisoning for Profit: The Mafia and Toxic Waste Disposal in America, Motivation and Delinquency, Interpersonal Violent Behaviors: Social and Cultural Aspects, After the Crime: Victim Decision Making, and Personality and Peer Influence in Juvenile Corrections.
Faculty have published articles in the leading journals in the field, including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Criminology and Public Policy, Justice Quarterly, Law and Society Review, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Violence and Victims, Social Forces, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and Law and Human Behavior.
Graduate Faculty
Thomas J. Bernard Ph.D., University at Albany |
Crime theory, juvenile justice, criminal justice institutions and processes |
Richard Felson Ph.D., Indiana University |
Demographic, structural, and cultural characteristics related to violent crime |
John H. Kramer Ph.D., University of Iowa |
Criminal justice/court decision making; criminal justice/court reform |
Derek Kreager Ph.D., University of Washington |
Criminology/delinquency, life course, peer networks |
Michael Massoglia Ph.D., University of Minnesota |
Criminology, life course studies, mental and physical health, methods and social statistics |
D. Wayne Osgood Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder |
Juvenile delinquency, transition to adulthood, evaluation of juvenile justice programs, research methods |
R. Barry Ruback J.D., University of Texas; Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh |
Decision making in criminal justice, causes and consequences of criminal victimization |
Eric Silver Ph.D., University at Albany |
Violence and mental disorder, communities and crime, actuarial prediction and the sociology of deviance |
Jeremy Staff Ph.D., University of Minnesota |
Criminology, juvenile delinquency, life course, stratification |
Darrell Steffensmeier Ph.D., University of Iowa |
Criminology; sociology of law; community, gender, age, race, and crime; criminal careers; qualitative methods |
Jeffrey T. Ulmer Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University |
Courts and sentencing, corrections, criminological theory, sociological theory, qualitative methods, social psychology, organizations |
Program Requirements
The Crime, Law, and Justice program is limited to full-time students who intend to pursue the Ph.D. and who are interested in graduate training that emphasizes research, teaching and scholarship. Admission is highly selective. Six to eight new students enter the program each year, ensuring that students have close interaction with the faculty. All students receive financial aid.
Master's Degree
The M.A. program is intended for students who plan to go on to pursue a Ph.D. Over 30 credits of course work and a master’s thesis are required for the master’s degree. This course work includes four 500-level methods courses: two in statistical methods, one in general research methods, and one in research methods for crime, law, and justice; a crime theory course; a course on the criminal justice system; a seminar covering a range of sociological topics; and at least two 500-level substantive crime, law, and justice courses. Finally, the Graduate School requires that M.A. candidates complete 6 thesis credits. These are earned while the student writes his or her M.A. thesis.
Doctoral Degree
Doctoral students must complete all courses required for the M.A. degree or their equivalents. In addition, they must take at least four 500-level courses in crime, law, and justice and a 1-credit lab in teaching.
Doctoral students must also select, in consultation with their advisory committees, 12 credits of course work outside the Crime, Law, and Justice program. This concentration must consist of 500-level courses that provide a solid grounding in a social science discipline that can be applied to the study of crime, law, or justice. Examples would include urban sociology, social psychology, human development, and American government institutions, among many other possibilities.
All Ph.D. candidates must pass a comprehensive exam and complete a high quality scholarly dissertation.
The Crime, Law, and Justice program has no formal foreign language or communication requirement.
Please review the Guide to Graduate Study in Criminology and Crime, Law and Justice.
The graduate program in demography
Penn State offers the unique opportunity for students to earn a Graduate School awarded dual-Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography. The Demography program was ranked in the top five population science graduate training programs in the United States by the 2006 U.S. News and World Report. Multi- and inter-disciplinary learning is a hallmark of the Penn State program which offers seven dual-degrees in Demography (i.e. Sociology and Demography, Anthropology and Demography, Health Policy Administration and Demography, etc.). The program provides in-depth and systematic training with a curriculum that features a rich offering of 39 seminars in cutting-edge population science issues. The Department of Sociology has great depth in faculty mentors in Demography with 18 faculty holding dual academic rank in both Sociology and Demography.
Click here for a full description of the Graduate Program in Demography, including complete curriculum and course information along with a description of the extensive facilities and resources as well as research program emphases of the Population Research Institute.
Program Faculty and their Demography Research Emphasis
Nancy S. Landale, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director, Population Research Institute |
Immigration, Infant Health, Adolescent Trasitions, Fertility |
Gordon F. De Jong, Ph. D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director, Graduate Program in Demography |
Social Demography, Migration & Immigration, Aging |
Duane Alwin, Ph.D. McCourtney Professor of Sociology, Demography and Human Development |
Demography of Life Course and Aging |
Paul R. Amato, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Demography of Life Course, Marital Quality, Divorce |
Alan Booth, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Human Development and Demography |
Bio-demography, Marital Quality, Divorce |
Frances Dodoo, Ph.D. Liberal Arts Research Professor of Sociology and Demography |
African Demography, Race and Ethnic Inequality, AIDS and Population Health |
George Farkas, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Inequality and Poverty, Race and Child Educational Attainment, Labor Markets |
Glenn Firebaugh, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Global Development, Cohort Analysis of Social Change |
Michelle L. Frisco, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Adolescent Health, Family Structure, Adolescent Schooling |
Melissa A. Hardy, Ph.D. Distinguisted Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, and Demography |
Aging, Labor Force and Older Workers, Retirement Economics |
David R. Johnson, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Marital Instability, Rural Health, Infertility |
Valarie King, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development |
Inter-generational Relations, Family Demography, Live Course & Aging |
Barrett A. Lee, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Urban Community, Residential Segregation, Homelessness |
Molly A. Martin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Family and Adolscent Obesity, Inter-generational Social Class |
Stephen A. Matthews, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography |
Spatial Demography, Population and Environment, Neighborhoods and Families |
Salvador Oropesa, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Immigrant Adaptation, Minority Families, Infant Health |
Robert Schoen, Ph.D. Hoffman Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Mathematical Demography, Family Demography, Fertility |
Jennifer Van Hook, Ph.D Associate Professor of Sociology and Demography |
International Immigration, Immigrant Health, Living Arrangements |
The Graduate Program in Family Sociology
Penn State offers the largest and most comprehensive family sociology program in the country and is home to some of the top scholars in the field. The department offers specialized training in related areas such as demography, child and adolescent development, race and ethnicity, stratification, and education. Faculty members are eager to work one-on-one with graduate students. Student to faculty ratio is about 2:1.
Penn State is the site of the National Symposium on Family Issues, a landmark event each year in the ongoing study of families. Two hundred scholars and policy experts attend the two-day symposium to consider a theme of multidisciplinary interest. Students are exposed to some of the most important issues in the field and become better scholars and practitioners by learning about the dimensions and complexity of problems facing families.
The Sociology Department guarantees five years of funding for students making satisfactory progress. The Department has a strong record of placing graduates in excellent academic and research positions. An engaged faculty placement committee helps students locate and prepare for jobs.
Recently Offered Graduate Seminars
Biosocial Perspectives on the Family
Demography of the Life Course
Family Disorganization
Feminist Family Sociology
Inequality in Child Development
Social Psychology of Domestic Violence
Close Relationships
Family Demography
Family Sociology
Human Fertility
Social Gerontology
Sociology of Aging
Family Sociology Faculty and Research Interests
Duane Alwin, Ph.D. McCourtney Professor of Sociology, Demography and Human Development |
Family ecology, family change, child rearing practices. |
Paul R. Amato, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Marital quality, causes and consequences of divorce, parent-child relationships, psychological well-being. |
Alan Booth, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Human Development and Demography |
Marital quality, divorce, intergenerational relations, hormones and family behavior. |
David Eggebeen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies |
Intergenerational relationships over the life course, fatherhood. |
George Farkas, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Households, families, and inequality; children's cognitive development, school achievement, and labor market outcomes. |
Michelle L. Frisco, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Family demography, health, adolescents, education. |
Jennifer Hook, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology |
Gendered devision of household labor, family policy (US and Europe), work and family, father involvement |
Rukmalie Jayakody, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies |
Family living arrangements, poverty and child well-being, welfare reform. |
David R. Johnson, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Marital quality over the life course, family and mental health, family and hormones, marital naming. |
Valarie King, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development |
Father-child relationships, grandparent-grandchild relationships, child well-being, religion and family behavior. |
Nancy S. Landale, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director, Population Research Institute |
Racial adn ethnic variation in family processes, union formation and dissolution, fertility, the role of fathers. |
Molly A. Martin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Social inequality, family, demography, and health. |
Salvador Oropesa, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
The health of immigrant children and families, demography of Latin America. |
Stacy J. Silver, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, Human Development and Women Studies |
Marital quality, stepfamily relationships, work and family. |
Robert Schoen, Ph.D. Hoffman Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Demography of family and household formation and dissolution, cohabitation, nonmarital fertility. |
Sociology of Education graduate program
The Sociology of Education graduate program emphasis at Penn State draws on faculty expertise in the Department of Sociology and the College of Education. Faculty research in this area includes studies of social inequality, and child and adolescent social problems and social issues. There is also a concern for social policy, macro social structural issues, and the social organization of schools, classrooms, and neighborhoods. Many faculty active in the sociology of education are also involved in the Population Research Institute (PRI), and other interdisciplinary groups on campus. PRI also maintains a restricted data facility for the use of researchers, providing access to restricted-use databases made available by the National Center for Education Statistics. A monthly sociology of education seminar series brings together a relatively large number of faculty and students from different schools and departments.
Graduate Courses in Sociology of Education
Sociology of Education
Sociology of Higher Education
Education and Demographic Change in the U.S. and Abroad
Inequality in Educational Attainment
Inequality in Child Development
Education Faculty and Research Emphasis
David Baker, Ph.D. Professor of Education and Sociology |
Macrostructural and Comparative
|
George Farkas, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology, Demography and Education |
Educational Inequality, Child Development, Public Policy |
Michelle Frisco, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Educational Stratification, Health, and Adolescence |
Molly Martin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Educational Stratification, Health and Adolescence |
Suet-ling Pong, Ph.D. Professor of Educational Theory and Policy, and Sociology |
Educational Inequality, Race and Ethnicity, Family |
Jeremy Staff, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Criminology and Sociology |
Juvenile Delinquency, Educational Achievement and Attainment, Life Course |
College of Education Faculty and Research Emphasis
David Post, Ph.D. Professor of Comparative and International Education |
Comparative, Sociology of Children |
Paul Morgan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Special Education |
At-risk Students, Cognition and Behavior, Instruction |
Katerina Bodovski, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Education |
Educational Inequality, Cultural Capital |
Sociology of Religion, Social Movements and Social Theory Graduate program
The Sociology Department has nationally and internationally-known scholars in the sociology of religion (Professor Roger Finke), social movements (Professor John McCarthy), and social theory (Professor Alan Sica). Some graduate students come to Penn State specifically to work with and be mentored by these scholars.
Under the direction of Roger Finke, the Sociology Department is home to the Association of Religious Data Archives, a national and international data resourse on religion which is used by students, professional scholars, journalist, and the general public from around the world. Immediate access to this resource is a significant asset to graduate students interested in the Sociology of Religion.
The Social Thought Program at Penn State is a network of members of the university community in various disciplines with shared interests in social, cultural, and political theories. This joint venture in teaching and research has been developed as an interdisciplinary approach to learning that emphasizes an historical understanding of intellectual change. The program is aimed at graduate students whose academic interests are broad, and is taught by faculty with a similar orientation. It offers a doctoral minor in Social Thought that augments a student’s primary field of study.
Program Emphasis Graduate Courses
Social Movements
Social Mobilization
Complex Organizations
Theories of Society
Contemporary Sociological Theory
Great Books and Research Articles
Stratification and Race/Ethnic/Gender Inequality
The stratification and inequality graduate program emphasis at Penn State draws on theoretical and empirical scholarship from institutional and class stratification as well as population-based inequality perspectives. A major intellectual focus is on socio-economic inequalities across race, ethnic, and gender groups, both at the individual and family level and at the state, nation, and global level. Stratification and inequality has been a major program emphasis for hiring new faculty in the Sociology Department.
Research Themes
Neighborhood racial/ethnic segregation
Educational inequality in the U.S.
Global inequalities in income, education, and health
Gender and race
Inequality among immigrant groups
Department Graduate Courses in Stratification and Inequality
Stratification and Social Change
Gender Stratification
Gender, Occupations, and Professions
Population and Gender in Africa
Inequality in Educational Attainment
Inequality in Child Development
Inequality in Immigrant Incorporation
Race, Ethnicity, and Residential Segregation
Health Disparities
Department Faculty and their Stratification/Inequality Research Emphasis
Glenn Firebaugh, Ph.D Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Global Inequalities, Income Inequality, Racial/Ethnic Segregation in the U.S., Measuring Inequality and Segregation |
David Baker, Ph.D. Professor of Education and Sociology |
Macrostructural and Comparative |
George Farkas, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology, Demography and Education |
Inequality and Poverty, Race and Child Educational Attainment, Labor Markets |
Frances Dodoo, Ph.D Liberal Arts Research Professor of Sociology and Demography |
African Demography, Race and Ethnic Inequality, AIDS and Population Health |
Emily Greenman, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Sociology |
Race, Ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Health and Earnings |
Jennifer Hook, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology |
Gender, Labor Markets, Social Policies |
Barrett A. Lee, Ph.D Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Urban Community, Residential Segregation, Homelessness |
Molly A. Martin, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Family and Adolscent Obesity, Inter-generational Social Class |
Stephen A. Matthews, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography |
Spatial Demography, Population and Environment, Neighborhoods and Families |
Marylee Taylor, Ph.D Associate Professor of Sociology. |
Race/Ethnic Relations |
Quantitative Methods program
A hallmark of graduate education in Sociology at Penn State is strong training in quantitative research methods. This training emphasis is promoted by the large number of department faculty with specialized training in quantitative methods, by the availability of nine regularly offered quantitative methods graduate courses, and by providing the opportunity to earn a Certificate in Quantitative Methods. The strength of our quantitative methods program is exemplified by the recent award to Sociology Department faculty member Dr. Stephen Matthews and colleagues of a five-year R25 grant by the National Institute of Health for an “Advanced Spatial Analysis Training Program” in recognition of Penn State’s national preeminence in spatial analysis methods. In addition to the Department of Sociology quantitative methods program, a Doctoral Minor in Applied Statistics, awarded by the Department of Statistics, is also available for more advanced training.
Other programs and training opportunities on campus include the annual Clogg Lecture organized by the Departments of Sociology and Statistics, the Quantitative Social Science Research Initiative organized by the Department of Political Science, the Methodology Training Center in the College of Health and Human Development, the summer Methodology Workshop organized annually by the demography graduate students and the Population Research Institute (PRI), and statistical seminars and training sessions offered by the Statistics Core within the PRI .
Graduate Courses in Quantitative Methods
Statistical Methods in Social Research
Structural Equation Models for Non-experimental Research
Demographic Techniques
Mathematical Demography
Event History Analysis
Multilevel Models
Spatial Demography
Survey Research Methods
Causal Analysis in Sociological Research
Certificate in Quantitative Methods
Students in Sociology or Crime, Law and Justice may earn a Certificate in Quantitative Methods (QM). To earn a QM certificate, students must complete four approved courses in methods/statistics, include quantitative methods as one of the areas in their comprehensive exam, and include a quantitative methodologist on their Ph D dissertation committee.
The following are examples of courses that can be used to meet the four-course requirement:
Event History Analysis
Econometrics
Multi-level Analysis
Mathematical Demography
Survey Methods
Department Faculty and their Quantitative Methods Specialization
Duane Alwin, Ph.D. McCourtney Professor of Sociology, Demography and Human Development |
Structural equation modeling, Reliability and validity of measures, Growth curve modeling |
Paul Amato, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Structural equation modeling, Latent class analyisi |
George Farkas, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology, Demography and Education |
Fixed and random effects, Structural equation modeling, Econometrics |
Glenn Firebaugh, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Analyzing repeated surveys, Measures of Inequality, Causal analysis |
Michelle Frisco, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Methods of casual analysis |
Melissa Hardy, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology and Demography |
Statistical distrbutions, Analysis of discrete and continuous data |
David R. Johnson, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Structural equation models, Multilevel models, Multiple Imputation, Methods of survey research |
Molly Martin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography |
Structural equation models, twin models |
Michael Massoglia, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Crime, Law and Justice |
Methods of causal analysis, Latent class analysis |
Stephen A. Matthews, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography |
Spatial analysis, GIS |
Wayne Osgood, Ph.D. Professor of Crime, Law and Justice and Sociology |
Multilevel models, Causal analysis, Methods of criminology research |
Robert Schoen, Ph.D. Hoffman Professor of Family Sociology and Demography |
Demographic techniques, Mathematical demography |
Marylee Taylor, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology |
Regression methods for social research |
Jennifer Van Hook, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology |
Event history models, applied demography methods |