Books
New in 2026
Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans
Published February 10, 2026 from Harvard University Press.
Upcoming Events and Lectures can be found here.
Interviews and Features can be found here.
Other Books
Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect
2nd edition out now from The University of Chicago Press
Awards:
Distinguished Scholarly Book Award (2014), American Sociological Association
Hindelang Book Award (2014), American Society of Criminology
Robert E. Park Book Award (2013), American Sociological Association, Community and Urban Sociology Section
The William Alonso Memorial Prize (2013), North American Regional Science Association
Albert J. Reiss, Jr. Distinguished Scholarship Award (2013), American Sociological Association, Crime, Law and Deviance Section
Reviews:
Contemporary Sociology, Symposium (Volume 42, 2013): "Inheritance of Poverty or Inheritance of Place? The Emerging Consensus on Neighborhoods and Stratification," by Douglas S. Massey, and "Chicago as Seen by the Chicago School’s Greatest Practitioner," by Lincoln Quillian (pp. 690-699). American Sociological Association, click here.
City & Community: “Symposium on Robert J. Sampson's Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect” (March 2013, 12:1-31). Featuring essays by Nancy Denton, Claude Fischer, John Goering, John Hagan and Wenona Richmond-Ryder, and Robert J. Sampson.
Bursik, Robert J. Jr. 2013. Book Review, Theoretical Criminology 17: 428-30.
Timberlake, Jeff. 2013. Book Review, Journal of Urban Affairs 35: 385–92.
Reifer, Thomas E. 2013. “Review Essay: The Reassertion of Race, Space, and Punishment’s Place in Urban Sociology and Critical Criminology.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 31: 372-380.
Ludwig, Jens. 2013. Book Review, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect by Robert J. Sampson. American Journal of Sociology Vol. 118, No. 5 (March 2013), pp. 1447-1449.
Massey, Douglas S. 2012. "Location Matters" in Science 36: 35-36.
Tom Sugrue and Sudhir Venkatesh on Great American City. Public Books (September, 2012)
"Neighborhood as a Social Fact: Lessons from the Case of Chicago." Review by Roberta Gardner for Books and Ideas (September 2012).
Review by Laura Vaughan in LSE Review of Books (December, 2012)
Interviews and Features can be found here.
Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life
Sampson, Robert J. and John H. Laub. 1995. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Shared Beginnings: Delinquent Boys to Age 70
Laub, John H. and Robert J. Sampson. 2006. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Edited Books
The Explanation of Crime: Context, Mechanisms and Development
Wikström, Per-Olof and Robert J. Sampson (Editors). 2006. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
The Social Ecology of Crime
Byrne, J.M. and Robert J. Sampson (Editors). 1986. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag Press.
Integrating Individual and Ecological Aspects of Crime
Farrington, David P., Robert J. Sampson, and Per-Olof H.Wikström (Editors). 1993. National Council for Crime Prevention Sweden.
Edited Volumes of THE ANNALS
McDonald, John and Robert J. Sampson (Editors). 2012. Immigration and the Changing Social Fabric of American Cities. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 641 (May). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
See also: "Don't Shut the Golden Door: The Beneficial Impact of Immigration." New York Times, June 2012.
Massey, Douglas S. and Robert J. Sampson (Editors). 2009. The Moynihan Report Revisited: Lessons and Reflections afer Four Decades. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 621 (January). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sampson, Robert J. and John H Laub (Editors). 2005. Developmental Criminology and Its Discontents: Trajectories of Crime from Childhood to Old Age. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Volume 602, November. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.