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 (7)
Opinion | Crime fighting efforts should start with Trump's buddies
The Washington Post online
2025-04-14
During last fall's presidential debate and in dozens of campaign stops, Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of releasing “millions” of criminals on America's citizens through his lax immigration policies. … The charge was, of course, absurd. While there were a handful of cases of criminals getting across the border, Charis Kubrin, a criminology professor at the University of California, Irvine, pointed out that "immigrants commit crime at a lower rate compared to their native born peers.”
Shielding immigrants may be at the top of public safety issues in Sacramento this year
Los Angeles Times online
2025-03-14
Charis Kubrin, a criminology professor at UC Irvine whose research found that the state’s sanctuary state law did not cause an increase in crime, said she is concerned that crime policies are based on “moral panics and fear.” “If we care about crime and want to enhance public safety, targeting immigration as the solution to the crime problem is a fool’s errand,” Kubrin said.
A sanctuary law aimed to ‘Trump-proof’ California on immigration. What has it accomplished?
Los Angeles Times online
2025-03-03
Charis Kubrin, a criminology professor at UC Irvine, found that SB 54 did not cause an increase in crime. She compared California’s violent and property crime rates with an approximation of the state’s rates if the law had not been enacted, and found no significant difference. The attacks on sanctuary policies assume that immigrants commit crimes at higher rates than the native-born population, said Kubrin, co-author of a 2023 book, “Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock.” Many studies have found the opposite is true.
Is rap on trial? How lyrics can be used against rappers in courtrooms
Miami Herald online
2025-02-27
In front of a jury, hip-hop lyrics can activate stereotypes about the genre and the artists, who are mainly men of color, said Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine. “If it wasn’t effective, we wouldn’t see as many cases as we see where this is happening,” she said. Kubrin, who co-authored a legal guide that provides tips for lawyers to counter lyrical evidence, has also been testifying as an expert witness in rap-related cases since 2011.
Heightened deportation fears could lead to underreporting crimes, less cooperation with police, scholars say
The Orange County Register online
2025-01-31
Charis Kubrin, a criminology and law professor at the University of California, Irvine, said …. “With heightened social control of immigrants, like deportation, they’re going to be less likely to come forward with what they do know or share information with police,” Kubrin said. “In the end, it can hurt the prevention of crime in those areas.” … “If you’re in a community outside of where you live, you may not know what police department policy is enforced in that particular area, whether they’re collaborating with enforcement or not,” said Susan Bibler Coutin, a UCI professor specializing in immigration issues. “California prohibits collaboration in general, but people may be hesitant given the current climate.”
Trump wants to break California’s sanctuary state law: 5 things to know
LAist online
2025-01-28
A 2020 analysis of California’s law by researchers at the University of California, Irvine examined the state’s 2018 violent and property crime rates and compared them to estimated crime rates had Gov. Brown not signed the sanctuary policy. The study found that the law did not have a significant impact on either violent crime or property crime. Charis Kubrin, who authored the study, said the takeaway of her research was that changing the state’s sanctuary status is not likely to result in major reductions in crime. “Getting rid of SB 54, for example, is not going to make crime go down because it didn’t cause crime to go up in the first place,” Kubrin said.
Trump promised mass deportations. Here’s one way they could quietly happen.
The Texas Tribune online
2025-01-17
“Since the early ‘90s, there's been a series of shifts that have gotten more punitive toward immigrants — and more restrictive — that has led to increased deportation,” said Charis E. Kubrin, a professor of criminology at the University of California, Irvine.
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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