Rory Kramer, PhD
Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Villanova University
- Villanova PA
Rory Kramer, PhD, is an expert on racial inequality, race and education, police use of force and segregation and the physical environment.
Media
Social
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Education
University of Pennsylvania
PhD
University of Pennsylvania
MA
Williams College
BA
Select Media Appearances
Mayor Parker's Plan to "Remove the Presence of Drug Users" From Kensington Raises New Questions
The Philadelphia Inquirer
2024-04-13
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker says her goal to end the billion-dollar open-air drug market that has plagued Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood for years can be achieved only through getting people in addiction into long-term treatment and housing... Rory Kramer, an associate professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University who has studied urban policing, said offering diversion instead of arrest in cases of people living in addiction is akin to "forced treatment," which he said many people don't respond well to.
When Your Body Counts but Your Vote Does Not: How Prison Gerrymandering Distorts Political Representation
Time Magazine
2021-07-01
If incarcerated people were not counted as part of District 150's population, it would lose more than roughly 5,000 people and likely be too small to meet the federal minimum requirements for a state representative, a 2019 study by Villanova University sociologists Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer found.
Like Being "an Enslaved Person": Why Former Prisoners Are Suing Pennsylvania Over "Prison Gerrymandering"
The Philadelphia Inquirer
2020-02-27
According to an analysis published by two Villanova University criminologists last year, Philadelphia would gain one or two state House seats simply by counting incarcerated people by their home counties. "If prisoners are counted as living in their residence of origin, there is a substantial likelihood that an additional majority-minority district in Philadelphia would be necessary," professors Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer wrote in their report.
"Your Body Being Used": Where Prisoners Who Can't Vote Fill Voting Districts
NPR
2019-12-31
A recent study about Pennsylvania's state legislative districts by Villanova University associate professors... found a "substantial likelihood" that Philadelphia would gain an additional majority-minority district for Pennsylvania's state house if prisoners incarcerated in the state were counted as residents of their last known addresses. "The incarcerated are not only missing from their communities," the study's authors, Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer, wrote, but "they are also advantaging other communities."
How We Count People Skews Political Power
The Appeal
2019-05-06
A new study of Pennsylvania shows the extent to which prison gerrymandering dilutes the political power of non-white residents and urban communities. Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer of Villanova University looked at every Pennsylvania district and examined the effect of counting people in their home districts rather than where they were incarcerated... "The incarcerated are not only missing from their communities, they are also benefiting other communities," write Remster and Kramer.
Study Shows Prisons Give Home Districts Power, Leach It From Poor Urban Areas
WITF
2019-04-26
Inmates can't vote. But they can be counted as part of the population in the counties where they're locked up. In a study released last month, Villanova researchers found that in Pennsylvania, counting inmates this way has given suburban and rural, predominantly white communities more political power—and it has simultaneously taken power away from urban communities of color... Remster and co-author Rory Kramer, a Villanova associate professor, found that counting inmates as part of their prison's district actually adds about 59 people to the average white person's district, and takes 353 and 313 people away from the average Black and Latino voters', respectively.
Why Did Baltimore Riots Prompt "Blue Alert" in Los Angeles?
The Christian Science Monitor
2015-04-28
The Los Angeles Police Department has ordered officers to ride in pairs after the Baltimore police sent out a coast-to-coast "Blue Alert" warning of what they call "a credible threat" against all police nationwide... "It's an embarrassment that an Instagram picture and a truce between gangs gets police all the way across the country to reform their practices," says Rory Kramer, a professor in Villanova University's Department of Sociology and Criminology who specializes in how segregated neighborhoods are formed in urban areas. "It's sad that the reform only serves to promote and reinforce an antagonistic view of the community from the police."
How Ferguson Could Be America's Future
CNN
2014-08-23
A dramatic increase in interracial marriages will change the racial landscape as more people cross racial and ethnic lines to marry. But that change won't be a cure-all, says Rory Kramer, a sociology and criminology professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania... "I don't want to deny the optimism," Kramer says. "I deny the assumption that it will happen without effort."
Research Grants
Pollak Grant
University of Pennsylvania
2011. "A Socio-Spatial Exploration of Racial Residential Boundaries on Philadelphia."
Pollak Grant
University of Pennsylvania
2006. "Preparing for Entrance: Non-Elite Student Preparation for Elite Boarding School."
Select Academic Articles
Democracy for Whom? How Criminal Punishment Marginalizes the Political Voices of Black and Brown Americans
Sociology CompassBrianna Remster, Rory Kramer
2023
Stop, Frisk and Assault? Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force During Investigatory Stops
Law and Society ReviewRory Kramer, Brianna Remster
2018
Shifting Power: The Impact of Incarceration on Political Representation
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on RaceBrianna Remster, Rory Kramer
2018
Defensible Spaces in Philadelphia: Exploring Neighborhood Boundaries Through Spatial Analysis
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social SciencesRory Kramer
2017
Racial Rigidity in the United States: Comment on Saperstein and Penner
American Journal of SociologyRory Kramer, Robert DeFina, Lance Hannon
2016
Intragroup Heterogeneity and Blackness: Effects of Racial Classification, Immigrant Origins, Social Class and Social Context on the Racial Identity of Elite College Students
Race and Social ProblemsCamille Z. Charles, Rory Kramer, Kimberly C. Torres, Rachelle J. Brunn-Bevel
2015
When Change Doesn't Matter: Racial Identity (in) Consistency and Adolescent Well-Being
Sociology of Race and EthnicityRory Kramer, Ruth Burke, Camille Z. Charles
2015
Out With the Old, in With the New? Habitus and Social Mobility at Selective Colleges
Sociology of EducationElizabeth M. Lee, Rory Kramer
2012
