Dr. Sandra Smith

Biography

Sandra Susan Smith is the Daniel Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice and Faculty Director of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy Management at Harvard Kennedy School. Smith also holds the title of Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute. Her research interests encompass urban poverty, joblessness, social capital, social networks, and front-end criminal case processing. She has contributed significantly to academic literature with publications including 'Lone Pursuit: Distrust Defensive Individualism Black Poor' and has co-edited works such as 'Criminal Justice System Labor Market Institution' with Jonathan Simon. Her research has appeared in prestigious journals like the American Journal of Sociology, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and others. Smith is actively involved in several advisory boards related to economic mobility and criminal justice, demonstrating her commitment to both academic and practical applications of her research. She has served as a council member for the American Sociological Association and as a Deputy Editor for the American Sociological Review. Smith earned her MA and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in history-sociology from Columbia University. Additionally, she has been a visiting scholar at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences and the Russell Sage Foundation.

Research Interests