Elizabeth Brown
Biography
Dr. Brown joined the Sociology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the fall of 2014. Prior to coming to UMass Boston, she was a member of the faculty in the Criminology and Criminal Justice department at Niagara University. Dr. Brown grew up in Senegal, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Bangladesh. She went to high school in Amherst, MA.
Area of Expertise
Law and society, moral politics, determinants of public views, punishment and precarity
Degrees
PhD, State University of New York, Albany (SUNY-Albany)
Professional Publications & Contributions
Wozniak, K. H., Pickett, J. T., & Brown, E. K. (2025). Dangerous or lazy: An experimental analysis of defendant characteristics and public support for collateral consequence restrictions. American Journal of Criminal Justice, Online first.
Schutten, N. M., Pickett, J. T., Wozniak, K. H., & Brown, E. K. (2024). Toward a standard measure of gun ownership: A methodological and theoretical quandary in firearm research. Justice Quarterly, Online first. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2024.24070
Wozniak, K. H., Pickett, J. T., & Brown, E. K. (2022). Judging hardworking robbers and lazy thieves: An experimental test of act- vs. person-centered punitiveness and perceived redeemability. Justice Quarterly, Online first.
Brown, E. K., & Silver, J. R. (2022). The moral foundations of crime control in American presidential platforms, 1968-2020. Punishment & Society, 24(2), 169-220.
Brown, E. K. (2020). Toward refining the criminology of mass incarceration: Group-based trajectories of U.S. states, 1977–2010. Criminal Justice Review, 45(1), 45-63.
Brown, E. K., Socia, K. M., & Silver, J. R. (2019). Conflicted conservatives, punitive views, and anti-Black racial bias 1974-2014. Punishment & Society, 21(1), 3-27.
Brown, E. K., & Socia, K. M. (2017). Twenty-first century punitiveness: Social sources of punitive American views reconsidered. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 33(4), 935-959. doi:10.1007/s10940-016-9319-4
Socia, K. M., & Brown, E. K. (2017). Up in Smoke: The Passage of Medical Marijuana Legislation and Enactment of Dispensary Moratoriums in Massachusetts. Crime & Delinquency, 63(5), 569-591.
Socia, K. M., & Brown, E. K. (2016). “This Isn’t About Casey Anthony Anymore” Political Rhetoric and Caylee’s Law. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 27(4), 348-377.
Worden, A. P., Davies, A. L. B., & Brown, E. K. (2014). Public Defense in an Age of Innocence: The Innocence Paradigm and the Challenges of Representing the Accused In M. Zalman & J. Carrano (Eds.), Wrongful Convictions and Criminal Justice Reform.
Brown, E. K. (2013). Foreclosing on incarceration? State correctional policy enactments and the Great Recession. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 24(3), 317-337.
Brown, E. K. (2012). Rethinking public opinion in penal policymaking: Recommendations for research. Sociology Compass, 6(8), 601-613.
Brown, E. K. (2011). Constructing the public will: How political actors in New York State construct, assess and use public opinion in penal policymaking. Punishment & Society, 13(4), 424-450.
Worden, A. P., Davies, A. L. B., & Brown, E. K. (2011). A Patchwork of Policies: Justice, Due Process, and Public Defense Across American States. Albany Law Review, 74(3), 1423-1463.
Brown, E. K. (2009). Public opinion and penal policymaking: An examination of constructions, assessments, and uses of public opinion by political actors in New York State. State University of New York at Albany, School of Criminal Justice.
Acker, J., Brown, E. K., & Englebrecht, C. M. (2007). The Scottsboro Boys: Black Men as "Racial Scapegoats". In Crimes and Trials of the Century (pp. 131-151). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Brown, E. K. (2006). The dog that did not bark: Punitive social views and the professional middle classes. Punishment & Society, 8(3), 287-312.
Additional Information
After graduating from Tufts University with a B.A. in Psychology in 2000, Dr. Brown went on to receive a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the School of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany, State University of New York, in 2009. Her research on the social determinants of public opinion about crime and justice, U.S. state-level penal policy, and the moral and political dimensions of public support for punitive measures has been published in Punishment & Society, the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Crime and Delinquency, and other academic journals. Her current research considers how meritocratic beliefs and personal perceived precarity shape public views of social class.