Selected Media

Selected Podcasts and Videos

Professor Sampson on “The Birth Lottery of History”, London School of Economics Podcast, October 9, 2023.

Study shows impact of gun violence on Chicago residents. Interview with John Williams, WGN Radio, May 18, 2023.

Implications of Everyday Urban Mobility for Structural Connectedness, Inequality, and Well-being in Contemporary Cities. Presentation at the Mobile Tartu 2022 Conference, June 29, 2022.

How Neighborhood and Life-Course Research Informs Criminal Justice Reform. Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, February 19, 2022.

Neighbourhood Disadvantage, Everyday Urban Mobility, and Well-Being. Bradford Hill Seminar, University of Cambridge, February 16, 2022.

The Storied Career of a Social Structure and Life-Course Scholar with Robert SampsonThe Crime Academy, Reflection Series Podcast, February 14, 2022.

Data Shows Racial Split in How People Move Around Boston. What ‘s the Impact? WGBH News, November 2, 2021, and PBS radio, Greater Boston (starting at 1:15:45).

Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect, Book lecture at the University of Southern California, March 18, 2014.

Discussing the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, National Institute of Justice Conference, November 30, 2012.

Chicago Ideas Week lecture on video: "Neighborhood Effects and the Contemporary City,"  October 9th, 2012.

“NORC 70th Anniversary Celebration Keynote Address", University of Chicago, April 28, 2011.

 

Selected Lectures, News Stories, Essays, and Interviews

How social change brings bias to predictive models used in criminal justice settings. Christy DeSmith, Harvard Gazette, June 1, 2023.

How birth year predicts exposure to gun violence. Christy DeSmith, Harvard Gazette, May 15, 2023.

Black and Hispanic people in Chicago exposed to gun violence at ‘significantly and persistently higher rate,’ report says. Nicole Chavez, CNN, May 9, 2023.

Over half of all native Black and Hispanic Chicagoans witness a shooting by age 40, study suggests. Nakylah Carter, ABC News, May 9, 2023.

How race, gun ownership, and feelings about Black Lives Matter shape Americans’ views of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Juan Siliezar, Harvard Gazette, July 12, 2022.

We don't just live in our neighborhoods': How neighborhood inequality might have been linked to your risk of getting COVID. Ashley Luthern, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 25, 2022.

Where white people go, where Black people go: Cellphone data reveals how segregated Bostonians are in their movements, Boston Globe, Ideas Section. October 31, 2021. 

IDEAS: Murders Are Rising the Most in a Few Isolated Precincts of Major Cities. Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2021.

A neighborhood’s well-being depends not only on its own socioeconomic conditions but on those of the neighborhoods its residents visit and are visited by: New study measures neighborhood inequality and violence based on everyday mobility. Harvard Gazette, March 21, 2021.

COVID-19 Targets Communities of ColorHarvard Gazette, April 2020.

Why African-Americans may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19Science News. April 10, 2020.

Why some low-income neighborhoods are better than others, Science News and see Unpacking the power of poverty Harvard Gazette.

On 19 and 20 September, 2018, the conference 'Urban poverty and segregation in a globalized world' took place.

"Chicago's Awful Divide." By Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, March 28, 2018.

Kerner Speaker

"The Criminalization of Gentrifying Neighborhoods." By Abdallah Fayya, The Atlantic, December 20, 2017.

To Advance Sustainability, Fight Inequality, Harvard Gazette, 2017

Toxic Inequality, Harvard Gazette, 2017.

White House Launches New MetroLab Network that Includes Collaboration Between the Boston Area Research Initiative and the City of Boston.

The Persistent Inequality of Neighborhoods, by Richard Florida, The Atlantic CITYLAB, December 6, 2016.

Chicago’s Murder Problem, New York Times, May 27, 2016.

Electing to Ignore the Poorest of the Poor. By Eduardo Porter, New York Times, November 17, 2015.

Obama Administration to Unveil Major New Rules Targeting Segregation across U.S.  Washington Post, July 8, 2015.     

Who Will Pay the Political Price for Affordable Housing?   New York Times, July 15, 2015.

Chicago Public Radio (July 9, 2015), HUD Stepping up Efforts to Integrate Neighborhoods.

America’s Leading Immigrant Cities,  Atlantic CityLab.     

Donald Trump: Wrong on Immigration and Crime.  Chicago Magazine.

Trump and the Myth of Immigrant Crime.   Chicago Tribune, July 4, 2015.

"A New View of Gentrification: Stark Findings in Google-enabled Study of Chicago Neighborhoods.”  Harvard Gazette.

"Gentrification and the Persistence of Poor Minority Neighborhoods." The Atlantic CITYLAB.

Why aren’t Chicago Neighborhoods Gentrifying?  WBEZ in Chicago examines gentrification in a 10-part series, There Goes the Neighborhood.

"In Chicago, Neighborhoods That Are More Black Don't Gentrify."  NPR, Code Switch.

"Is Your Neighborhood Gentrifying? Check Google Street View."  Wall Street Journal, Digits.

"Gentrification: white people following white people." The Boston Globe.

"Why and How Chicago Neighborhoods Gentrify--and When." Chicago Magazine.

September 14, 2015: White House Launches New MetroLab Network that Includes Collaboration Between BARI and Boston

October, 2015: Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses compounded deprivation and criminal justice in The Atlantic. See The Black Family and Mass Incarceration.

 

Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood EffectDivision Street, USANew York Times, October 26, 2013.

Interview on "Thinking Allowed," BBC Radio, December 11, 2013.

"All in the Neighborhood," Interview on Remapping Debate.

Q&A: Robert Sampson, social scientist, on how neighborhoods shape our lives.  By Christina Hernandez Sherwood, SmartPlanet.com.

Social Infrastucture.  Presentation video at The City Resilient conference, Brooklyn, NY,  June 2013.

Discover Magazine, "The Enduring Importance of Neighborhoods: A Sense of Trust is Key to Making Urban Neighborhoods Thrive." By Dan Hurley, April, 2013.

The Atlantic, "Kind Neighbors Are Scarce, but Important." By Lindsay Abrams, March 2013.

The New York Times featured Great American City in a story about a neighborhood in Chicago under challenge: “Diagnosis: Battered but Vibrant.”  See also "Saving Chatham," "Chatham's Community Character," and the associated podcast "Hanging On in Chicago," January 8, 2013.

Chicago Magazine on "Homicide, Social Efficacy, and Poverty in Chicago" and "Does Segregation Make a City More Vulnerable to Crime?" (January 2013).

"The Neighborhood Effect," featured essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education (November, 2012)."Employment Solutions: Can a Town’s Good Deeds Lower Unemployment?"  Christian Science Monitor (June 2012).

"Meet Your Neighbors, if Only Online," New York Times (May 2012)."The Social Order of the American City: Lessons for Crime and Justice"  Interview with Michael Jacobson, Director of the Vera Institute of Justice

"Next Great Idea: The Enduring Effect of Neighborhoods."  Interview with Richard Florida, Senior Editor at The Atlantic (April, 2012).

 Milt Rosenberg's "Extension 720", WGN, Chicago (April 2012).

 "Chicago as Urban Microcosm,"  Harvard Gazette (February, 2012).

"The Persistence of Place," Harvard Magazine (February, 2012).

 

Immigration and Crime

"Does Crime Drop When Immigrants Move In?"  NPR All Things Considered,  March 2013.

"Don't Shut the Golden Door: The Beneficial Impact of Immigration."  New York Times, June 2012.

"Arrival of the Fittest: Canada’s Crime Rate is Dropping as Immigration Increases. Is There a Connection?" The Walrus, June 2011.

 "Do Immigrants Make Us Safer?" New York Times Magazine, December 2006.

"Good Waves." Boston Globe, January 2006 ("Ideas" Section).

"Open Doors Don't Invite Criminals." New York Times, March 2006.

Immigrant Effects: Latinos Nix Violence." Harvard Magazine, September 2006.

"Do Illegal Immigrants Burden the Justice System?" NPR Morning Edition, April 2006.

Mais Immigrantes, Menos Crimes, by Solange Azevedo, Época Magazine, Brazil (21 De Maio De 2007).

 

“Broken Windows” and Disorder"

Private Conflict, Not Broken Windows, Richard Florida in Atlantic CityLab

A Brief History of Disorder and Getting to Grips with Disorder." Interview Discussion with Richard Sennett, British Journal of Sociology podcast, 2009

"Urban Crime and Disorder." BBC’s Thinking Allowed, October 2008.

The Cracks in 'Broken Windows'. Boston Globe, February, 2006.

A Crack in the Broken-Windows Theory. Washington Post, January, 2005.

Reconsidering the ‘Broken Windows’ TheoryNPR Morning Edition, March, 2005.

 

Neighborhood Inequality

"Can this Chicago community be saved? Hope rises in Englewood."  Christian Science Monitor, September 2013.

"Can $86 Million Save a Neighborhood?" Chicago Magazine, February 2013.

"A moving lift for poor families: Housing vouchers gave impoverished single mothers emotional but not economic benefits."  Science News, September 2012.

Chicago Tribune on foreclosures, "poverty traps," and community decline. June, 2011.

"Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback."   New York Times, October 2010

Harvard Science, "Living in Disadvantaged Neighborhood Equivalent to Missing a Year in School." December, 2007.

 

Criminal Careers and Desistance

John Laub and Robert Sampson awarded John Laub and Robert Sampson awarded in Criminology, 2011.

"Whitey’s Generation: What was Life Like for the Tough Boys of ‘30s and ‘40s Boston? It Turns Out They Were the Most Closely Studied Troublemakers in History."  Boston Globe, "Ideas" Section, July 10, 2011

"Genetic Basis for Crime: A New Look."  New York Times, June 2011.

"Fight School Violence, Pinpoint Its Victims."  Time Magazine, October 2010..

"Crooks Take Early Retirement: Twigs Bent, Trees go Straight."  Harvard Magazine, March 2004.

 

Gentrification

“Google Street View shows that Gentrification in Chicago has Largely Bypassed Poor Minority Neighborhoods, Reinforcing Urban Inequality.”  The LSE American Politics and Policy Blog.

 

Collective Efficacy

"Crime and Community."  Q and A with Robert J. Sampson. Boston Globe, August 2004.

"Collective Efficacy" Podcast Interview on Thomson-Rueters Science Watch.

" Study Links Violence Rate to Cohesion in Community." New York Times, August 1997.

 

Social Capital and Community Organizations

Can Block Clubs Block Despair? Why do some poor communities fall apart while others cohere? Community organization can make a difference—up to a point.  American Prospect, May 2007.

"Bowling Alone?: Civil Society May Not be in Such Bad Shape." Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2006.