Jeffery Ulmer

Research and Teaching Interests

Jeffery Ulmer’s interests include the sociology of criminal justice, criminal and deviant behavior, social psychology, sociology of religion, organizations, and the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. Dr. Ulmer's recent research projects focus on sentencing and the social organization of federal courts; macro-level research on race, ethnicity, and violence; criminological theory, and religion and delinquency.

Dr. Ulmer is the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Crime, Law, and Justice, and Honors Program Director for Sociology and  Crime, Law, and Justice.  He teaches  undergraduate courses such as Criminology, Social Psychology, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Sociology of Deviance, and Courts/Sentencing, and graduate courses such as Criminal Justice Organizations and Institutions, Criminological Theory, Sentencing and Corrections, and Symbolic Interactionism.

Professional and Scholarly Awards and Achievements

2012 Distinguished Scholar Award, American Society of Criminology, Division on Corrections and Sentencing.

2012 Outstanding Article Award from the American Society of Criminology for: Steffensmeier, Darrell, Jeffery T. Ulmer, Ben Feldmeyer, and Casey Harris. 2010. “Scope and Conceptual Issues in Testing the Race-Crime Invariance Thesis: Black, White, and Hispanic Comparisons.” Criminology 48(4):1133-1169.

2011-John Kramer, Jeffery Ulmer, and Gary Zajac (Co-Principal Investigators).  “ Discrimination in the Administration of the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania.” Falk Foundation and Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Fairness.

2006 (with Darrell Steffensmeier) Michael Hindelang Book Award from the American Society of Criminology, for Confessions of a Dying Thief: Understanding Criminal Careers and Illegal Enterprise.

2007- present, Nonresident Fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.

2005-present, Editorial Board, Criminology

2002 - 2006, 2008 – present,  Editorial Board, Contemporary Sociology

2004 - 2006, Advisory Editor, Justice Quarterly

1996-2002, Advisory Editor, The Sociological Quarterly

2007-2009 Darrell Steffensmeier and Jeffery Ulmer, Co-Principle Investigators, “Race, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime: An Analysis of Census Places in California, New York, and Pennsylvania.” National Science Foundation.

2007-Research Consultant, “The Role of Religion in Youth Prosocial Behavior.” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (Byron Johnson, Principle Investigator).

2004- Jeffery Ulmer, James Eisenstein, and John Kramer, Co-Principle Investigators, "A National Survey of Federal District Criminal Court Community Actors." National Science Foundation.

2001 - Distinguished New Scholar Award, American Society of Criminology, Division on Corrections and Sentencing

2001-2003 - Co-principal Investigator (with James Eisenstein, John H. Kramer, and Lisa L. Miller), "Uncharted Territory: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Inter-district Variation in the Federal Criminal Justice System." National Science Foundation.

2001-2002 - Co-principal Investigator (with John Kramer), "Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Pennsylvania Sentencing." The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias.

2001-2002 - Co-principal Investigator (with John Kramer), "The Impact of Restrictive Intermediate Punishment Programs on Recidivism." The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.

1997-1998 - Principal Investigator, "Fear of Crime: Testing a Generic Model Among Koreans in Chicago Metropolitan Communities." Purdue Research Foundation Grant.

1996 - Purdue Research Foundation Summer Faculty Award.

Selected Publications

Books

Kramer, John H. and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2009.  Sentencing Guidelines:  Lessons from Pennsylvania.  Boulder, CO:  Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Steffensmeier, Darrell and Jeffery T. Ulmer. 2005. Confessions of a Dying Thief: Understanding Criminal Careers and Criminal Enterprise. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Aldine.

Ulmer, Jeffery T. 1997. Social Worlds of Sentencing: Court Communities Under Sentencing Guidelines. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Recent Articles

Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Casey Harris. In press. “The Effects of Religious Contexts on Black, Latino, and White Violence Rates.” The Sociological Quarterly.

Desmond, Scott, Jeffery T. Ulmer, and Christopher Bader. Forthcoming. “Religion, Self Control, and Delinquency.” Deviant Behavior.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Casey Harris, and Darrell Steffensmeier.  2012. “Race/Ethnic Disparities in Structural Disadvantage and Crime: White, Black, and Hispanic Comparisons.”  Social Science Quarterly 93(3):799-819.

Silver, Eric, and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2012. “Future Selves and Self-Control Motivation:  Toward a Conceptualization of the “Self” in Self-Control Theory.”  Deviant Behavior 33(7):699-714.

Ulmer, Jeffery T. 2012.  “Recent Developments and New Directions in Sentencing Research.” Justice Quarterly 29(1):1-40.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Scott Desmond, Sung Joon Jang, and Byron Johnson. 2012. “Religious Involvement and Dynamics of Marijuana Use: Initiation, Persistence, and Desistence.” Deviant Behavior 33(6):448-468.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Michael Light, and John Kramer. 2011.  “Racial Disparity in the Wake of the Booker/Fanfan Decision:  An Alternative Analysis to the USSC’s 2010 Report.”  Criminology and Public Policy 10(4):1077-1118.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Michael Light, and John Kramer.  2011.  “Does Increased Judicial Discretion Lead to Increased Disparity?  The “Liberation” of Judicial Sentencing Discretion In the Wake of the Booker/Fanfan Decision.”  Justice Quarterly 28(6):799-837.

Lee, Minsik, Jeffery T. Ulmer, and MiRang Park.  2011. “Drug Sentencing in South Korea:  The Influence of Case Processing and Social Status Factors in an Ethnically Homogeneous Context.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 27(3):378-397.

Feldmeyer, Ben and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2011.  “Racial/Ethnic Threat and Federal Sentencing.”  Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 48(2):238-270.

Steffensmeier, Darrell, Ben Feldmeyer, Casey Harris, and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2011. “Reassessing Trends in Black Violent Crime, 1980-2008: Sorting out the ‘Hispanic Effect’ in UCR Arrests and NCVS Offenders Estimates.”  Criminology 49(1):197-251.

Steffensmeier, Darrell, Jeffery T. Ulmer, Ben Feldmeyer, and Casey Harris.  2010.  “Testing the Race-Crime Invariance Thesis: Black, White, and Hispanic Comparisons.”   Criminology 48(4):1133-1169.

Ulmer, Jeffery, James Eisenstein, and Brian Johnson.  2010.  “Trial Penalties in Federal Sentencing:  Extra-Guidelines Factors and District Variation”  Justice Quarterly 27(4):560-592.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Scott Desmond, Sung Joon Jang, and Byron Johnson.  2010. “Teenage Religiosity and Changes in Marijuana Use During a Transition to Young Adulthood.”  Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 6:1-17.

Bradley, Mindy and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2009.  “Social Worlds of Stripping: Processual Order and Commitment in Exotic Dance Establishments.” The Sociological Quarterly 50(1):29-60.

Casey Harris, Darrell Steffensmeier, Jeffery T. Ulmer, and Noah Painter-Davis.  2009.  “Are Blacks and Hispanics Disproportionately Incarcerated Relative to their Arrests?  Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality Between Arrest and Incarceration.”  Race and Social Problems 1(4):187-199.

Johnson, Brian, Jeffery T. Ulmer, and John Kramer.  2008.  “The Social Context of Guideline Circumvention: The Case of Federal District Courts.”  Criminology 46(3):711-783.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Christopher Bader, and Martha Gault.  2008.  “Do Moral Communities Play a Role in Criminal Sentencing?  Evidence From Pennsylvania.”  The Sociological Quarterly 49(4):737-768.

Ulmer, Jeffery T., Megan Kurlychek, and John Kramer.  2007.  “Prosecutorial Discretion and the Imposition of Mandatory Minimums.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 44(4):427-458.

Steffensmeier, Darrell and Jeffery T. Ulmer. 2006. “Black and White Control of Numbers Banking in Black Communities, 1970-2000.” American Sociological Review 71(1).   (Reprinted in Organized Crime:  Critical Concepts in Criminology, 2009, edited by F. Varese.  New York:  Routledge).

Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Darrell Steffensmeier. 2006. “Is there No Place for Culture in a Sociology of Illegal Enterprise? A Reply to Lee” American Sociological Review 71(1).

Ulmer, Jeffery and Mindy S. Bradley.  2006.  “Variation  in Trial Penalties Among Serious Violent Offenses.” Criminology 44(3):631-670.