Charis Kubrin
Professor | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
Charis E. Kubrin is Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and (by courtesy) Sociology.
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Biography
Charis E. Kubrin is Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and (by courtesy) Sociology. She is also a member of the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice- Network. Her research focuses on neighborhood correlates of crime, with an emphasis on race and violent crime. Recent work in this area examines the immigration-crime nexus across neighborhoods and cities, as well as assesses the impact of criminal justice reform on crime rates. Another line of research explores the intersection of music, culture, and social identity, particularly as it applies to hip hop and minority youth in disadvantaged communities.
Professor Kubrin has received several national awards including the Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology (for outstanding scholarly contributions to the discipline of criminology); the Coramae Richey Mann Award from the Division on People of Color and Crime, the American Society of Criminology (for outstanding contributions of scholarship on race/ethnicity, crime, and justice); and the W.E.B. DuBois Award from the Western Society of Criminology (for significant contributions to racial and ethnic issues in the field of criminology). Most recently she received the Paul Tappan Award from the Western Society of Criminology (for outstanding contributions to the field of criminology). In 2019, she was named a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.
Issues of race and justice are at the forefront of Professor Kubrin’s TEDx talk, The Threatening Nature of…Rap Music?, which focuses on the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials against young men of color. Along with Barbara Seymour Giordano, Kubrin received a Cicero Speechwriting Award for this talk in the category of “Controversial or Highly Politicized Topic.”
Areas of Expertise (6)
Race, Ethnicity, and Crime
Crime Trends
Crime
Immigration and Crime
Rap Music and Media
Criminal Justice Reform
Accomplishments (4)
Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award (professional)
from the American Society of Criminology (for outstanding scholarly contributions to the discipline of criminology)
Coramae Richey Mann Award (professional)
from the Division on People of Color and Crime, the American Society of Criminology (for outstanding contributions of scholarship on race/ethnicity, crime, and justice)
W.E.B. DuBois Award (professional)
from the Western Society of Criminology (for significant contributions to racial and ethnic issues in the field of criminology)
Paul Tappan Award (professional)
from the Western Society of Criminology (for outstanding contributions to the field of criminology)
Education (1)
University of Washington: PhD, Sociology
Affiliations (1)
- American Society of Criminology : Fellow
Links (7)
Media Appearances (10)
What’s behind recent false claims about immigrants and crime?
PolitiFact online
2024-09-27
There is no national data that tracks and correlates immigrants coming into the country with crime, and any research studies on the topic tend to lag behind releases of FBI crime statistics, experts told PolitiFact. "If we pay attention to what the last 80 years of studies have told us, we would see, in general, that there's likely to be no significant impact on crime," because of increased immigration, Charis Kubrin, a University of California, Irvine criminology, law and society professor, and member of the Council on Criminal Justice, said.
What drove California Democrats to seek stiff bills governing retail theft? Experts explain
The Sacramento Bee online
2024-09-06
There are legitimate concerns about organized retail theft in which thieves coordinate multiple people to descend on multiple different stores, said Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at UC Irvine. But the debate has become riddled with false narratives that crime is responsible for problems plaguing retailers, she said. Kubrin also said elected officials could have sought to capitalize on retail theft by politicizing it for their own purposes due the upcoming November election.
The inconvenience store: Why are shops locking up even more merchandise?
The Week online
2024-07-29
In an attempt to stop retail theft, big chain stores are locking up more and more of their wares. National chains eagerly point to retail theft as a key drag on profits …. This problem may be trumped up "by a retail industry happy to pin its problems, which include market forces such as inflation and a shift to online shopping, on stolen merchandise," Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology at UC Irvine who studies retail theft, told the [Los Angeles] Times. While some stores lock up lots of merchandise, others do not, Kubrin said, so "it's kind of an uneven distribution."
Viral street signs not proof that theft is legal in California | Fact check
USA Today online
2024-07-03
Charis Kubrin, a criminology professor at the University of California, Irvine, previously told USA TODAY that the proposition didn't legalize theft of up to $950 worth of goods. … “What Prop. 47 did was reclassify some low-level drug and property offenses as misdemeanors rather than felonies – still keeping them as crimes,” Kubrin said.
Trump made more than 30 false claims during CNN’s presidential debate — far more than Biden
CNN Politics online
2024-06-27
Charis Kubrin, co-author of the 2023 book “Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock” and professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine, told CNN’s Catherine Shoichet early this year: “Across a variety of studies that use different years of data that focus on different areas of the United States … in general, on average, we do not find a connection between immigration and crime, as is so often claimed. … It’s rare to find studies that show crime following increases in immigration or with larger percentage of the population that are immigrants.”
‘The bane of retail.’ To prevent theft, many big chains now lock up all kinds of merchandise
Los Angeles Times online
2024-04-25
Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology at UC Irvine who studies retail theft, said that although some stores lock up lots of merchandise, others cage almost nothing. “It’s kind of an uneven distribution,” she said. “A mixed bag.” … The scale of merchandise theft, Kubrin added, is sometimes overblown by a retail industry happy to pin its problems, which include market forces such as inflation and a shift to online shopping, on stolen merchandise.
‘The bane of retail.’ To prevent theft, many big chains now lock up all kinds of merchandise
Los Angeles Times online
2024-04-25
Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology at UC Irvine who studies retail theft, said that although some stores lock up lots of merchandise, others cage almost nothing. “It’s kind of an uneven distribution,” she said. “A mixed bag.” … The scale of merchandise theft, Kubrin added, is sometimes overblown by a retail industry happy to pin its problems, which include market forces such as inflation and a shift to online shopping, on stolen merchandise.
Opinion: Laken Riley’s killing does reflect a broader danger. But it isn’t ‘immigrant crime’
Los Angeles Times online
2024-04-01
Charis E. Kubrin, UCI professor of criminology, law and society and Sarah Shannon write, “Laken Riley’s killing should remind us of the ways that violence against women is downplayed, tolerated and even facilitated in America. Misusing this crime to demonize immigrants, capitalize on misguided fears, call for reactionary policies based on flawed beliefs and gain votes in an election year is one more way of diminishing and distracting from the problem it actually represents.”
Killings by police brought reforms. Fear of crime is unraveling them.
The Washington Post online
2024-03-10
Criminologist Charis Kubrin of the University of California, Irvine said California crime trends are at “historic lows” too, yet people in general remain “extremely concerned about crime,” in part because horrific stories of violence are often amplified on social media and in news reports. “There is always a disconnect between perceptions of crime and data,” Kubrin said. “Most people get their information on crime from headlines and politicians.”
Address Showed Biden Seeking Tricky Balance on Immigration
The New York Times online
2024-03-08
While there has long been a concerted focus to connect immigrants to increases in crime, Charis E. Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine, said that the emphasis was misguided. “What we’ve found is that increases in immigration to areas either have no impact on crime or cause crime to go down on average,” she said about her research, adding that the Riley case offered an opportunity to “politicize this issue which is already political.”
Articles (8)
Sanctuary Status and Crime in California: What’s the Connection?
Justice Evaluation Journal2020 In 2017, California officially became a sanctuary state following the passage of Senate Bill 54, which limits state and local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Following the passage of SB54, critics worried that crime rates would rise. What impact did this policy have on crime in California? The current study, the first of its kind, addresses this question.
Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide
Archives of Suicide Research2019 In the current study we use a synthetic control group design to estimate the causal effect of a medical marijuana initiative on suicide risk. In 1996, California legalized marijuana use for medical purposes. Implementation was abrupt and uniform, presenting a “natural experiment.”
Institutional Completeness and Crime Rates in Immigrant Neighborhoods
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency2018 A growing body of research finds that immigration has a null or negative association with neighborhood crime rates. We build on this important literature by investigating the extent to which one theory, institutional completeness theory, may help explain lower crime rates in immigrant communities across the Southern California region. Specifically, we test whether two key measures of institutional completeness—the presence of immigrant/ethnic voluntary organizations in the community and the presence and diversity of immigrant/ethnic businesses in the community—account for lower crime rates in some immigrant communities.
Imagining violent criminals: an experimental investigation of music stereotypes and character judgments
Journal of Experimental Criminology2018 Using an experimental approach, participants were presented with music lyrics and asked to make judgments about the person who wrote the lyrics. All participants read the same lyrics but were told they were from a country, heavy metal, or rap song, depending upon the condition into which they were randomly assigned.
Can We Downsize Our Prisons and Jails Without Compromising Public Safety?
Criminology & Public Policy2018 Our study represents the first effort to evaluate systematically Proposition 47’s (Prop 47’s) impact on California’s crime rates. With a state-level panel containing violent and property offenses from 1970 through 2015, we employ a synthetic control group design to approximate California’s crime rates had Prop 47 not been enacted.
Immigration and Crime: Assessing a Contentious Issue
Annual Reviews2018 Are immigration and crime related? This review addresses this question in order to build a deeper understanding of the immigration-crime relationship. We synthesize the recent generation (1994 to 2014) of immigration-crime research focused on macrosocial (i.e., geospatial) units using a two-pronged approach that combines the qualitative method of narrative review with the quantitative strategy of systematic meta-analysis.
Suicide in Happy Places: Is There Really a Paradox?
Journal of Happiness Studies2017 In 2011 researchers published a paper that exposed a puzzling paradox: the happiest states in the U.S. also tend to have the highest suicide rates. In the current study, we re-examine this relationship by combining data from the Multiple Mortality Cause-of-Death Records, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and the American Communities Survey to determine how subjective well-being and suicide are related across 1563 U.S. counties.
The Threatening Nature of “Rap” Music
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law2016 Rap music has had a contentious relationship with the legal system, including censorship, regulation, and artists being arrested for lewd and profane performances. More recently, rap lyrics have been introduced by prosecutors to establish guilt in criminal trials. Some fear this form of artistic expression will be inappropriately interpreted as literal and threatening, perhaps because of stereotypes.
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