Bruce Western

Bruce Western is a sociologist of poverty and inequality whose research examines the social and economic impact of criminal justice policy and incarceration. Much of this work studies the causes, scope, and consequences of the historic growth in U.S. prison populations. Western was the Principal Investigator of the Square One Project, which re-imagined the public policy response to violence under conditions of poverty and racial inequality. He is author of two prize-winning Russell Sage Foundation books, Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison (2018) and Punishment and Inequality in America (2006), and is author, editor, or co-editor of nine books and monographs. He co-chaired expert panels for the National Research Council on COVID-19 in U.S. prisons (2020) and on reducing racial inequality in the criminal justice system (2022-2023).

Western is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the American Philosophical Society. Before coming to RSF, Western was the Bryce Professor of Sociology and Social Justice at Columbia University (2018-2024), professor of sociology and the Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy at Harvard University (2007-2018), and professor of sociology at Princeton University (1993-2007). He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar. Born in Canberra, Australia, Western received his B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Queensland and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.