Professional Bio

Research and Teaching Interests

Jeffery Ulmer's interests include criminology, social psychology, sociology of religion, organizations, and the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Research Interests

My research interests span the sociology of criminal punishment, criminological theory, religion and crime, and racial/ethnic inequality and violence rates. More broadly, I have expertise in social psychology, organizations, symbolic interactionism, and the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods.

Research Projects

I have several ongoing projects, including: 1) a long-range research agenda focusing on differences between social contexts in court processes and punishment, and inequalities in criminal sentencing at the state and federal levels; 2) a study of racial and ethnic disparity in homicide prosecution and sentencing; 3) studies of how local religious contexts affect local crime rates and criminal punishment.

Selected Awards

2021 American Society of Criminology Fellow Award.

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

2012 Outstanding Article Award, American Society of Criminology, for Steffensmeier, Ulmer, Feldmeyer and Harris.  2010.  Criminology 48(4):1133-1169.

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

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

Selected Publications

Books

Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Mindy Bradley (editors).  2018.  Punishment Decisions: Locations of Disparity.  New York:  Routledge.

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 and Chapters

Ulmer, Jeffery, and Miranda Galvin. In press. “The “Dark Figure” of Discretion – The Imposition of Consecutive Incarceration Sentences as a Window of Discretion.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224278231194709

Zvonkovich, Jordan, and Jeffery Ulmer. In press. “Segregation and Group Threat:  Specifying Hispanic-White Punishment Disparity.” Social Problems.  https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad032

Ulmer, Jeffery. In press. “Inequalities in the Death Penalty: Race, Victims, and Geographic Arbitrariness.” In The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing, edited by R. King and M. Light. New York: Oxford University Press.

Silver, Jason, and Jeffery Ulmer.  2024. “Moral Intuitions, Punishment Ideology, and Judicial Sentencing.” Journal of Crime and Justice 47(2):219-240.  https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2023.2248085

Silver, Eric, Jeffery Ulmer, and Jason Silver.  2023. “Do Judges’ Moral Intuitions Influence Their Sentencing Decisions? A Multilevel Study of Criminal Court Sentencing in Pennsylvania.”  Social Science Research 115:102927.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102927

Ulmer, Jeffery.  2023. “David R. Maines: Embedding Symbolic Interactionism at the Heart of Sociology.”  Symbolic Interaction 46(1):3-25. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.625

Ulmer, Jeffery, Lily Hanrath, and Eric Silver. 2023. “Back to Basics: A Critical Examination of the Focal Concerns Framework from The Perspective of Judges.” Justice Quarterly 40(6):813-836. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2022.2132274

Ulmer, Jeffery. 2023. “David Maines and his Collaborative Circles:  A Remembrance.” Studies in Symbolic Interaction 57:3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-239620230000057001

Galvin, Miranda and Jeffery T. Ulmer. 2022. “Expanding Our Understanding of Focal Concerns:  Alternative Sentences, Race, and ‘Salvageability.’” Justice Quarterly 39(6):1332-1353. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2021.1954234

Ulmer, Jeffery, Lily Hanrath, and Gary Zajac. 2022. “Racialized Victim Gender Differences in Capital Decision Making in Pennsylvania.” Justice Quarterly 39(5):1104-1127.  https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2021.1965187

Ulmer, Jeffery, Gary Zajac, and John Kramer.  2020. “Geographic Arbitrariness?  County Court Variation in Capital Prosecution and Sentencing in Pennsylvania.” Criminology and Public Policy 19:1073-1112. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12517

Ulmer, Jeffery, John Kramer, and Gary Zajac.  2020. “The Race of Defendants and Victims in Death Penalty Decisions in Pennsylvania:  2000-2010.” Justice Quarterly 37(5):955-983. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2019.1679865

Painter-Davis, Noah and Jeffery Ulmer.  2020.  “Discretion and Disparity Under Sentencing Guidelines Revisited: The Interrelationship Between Structured Sentencing Alternatives and Guideline Decision Making.”  Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 57(3):263-293. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022427819874862

Ulmer, Jeffery and Brandy Parker.  2020.  “Federal Sentencing of Hispanic Defendants in Changing Immigrant Destinations.” Justice Quarterly 37(3):541-570.  https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2019.1621362

Ulmer, Jeffery, Christopher Scheitle, and Ezekiel Kaufman.  2020. “Religious Congregations and Crime Incidents:  Opportunity and Bias.”  Journal of Crime and Justice 43(2):193-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2019.1628801

Ulmer, Jeffery and Kaitlyn Konefal.  2019.  “Sentencing the ‘Other:’  Punishment of Latinx Defendants.”  UCLA Law Review 66(6):1716-1761. https://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2020/06/Ulmer-Konefal-66-6.pdf

Ulmer, Jeffery and Lily Hanrath.  2019. “Disparities in Death Penalty Prosecution and Punishment:  A Review of Recent Research and an Expanded Agenda.” pp. 254-280 in Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21^st Century; Handbook on Corrections and Sentencing, Vol. 4.  New York:  Routledge.

Ulmer, Jeffery.  2019.  “Courts as Inhabited Institutions:  A Research Agenda.”  Crime and Justice:  A Review of Research, Vol. 48:483-522. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/701504 

Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Mindy Bradley.  2019.  "Criminal Justice in 'Indian Country:  A Theoretical and Empirical Agenda." Annual Review of Criminology 2:337-357.   https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024805

Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Mindy Bradley.  2018.  "Punishment in 'Indian Country:'  Ironies of Federal Sentencing Jurisdiction over Native American Crime."  Justice Quarterly 35(5):751-781.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2017.1341540

Scheitle, Christopher and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2018. "Profane Concerns in Sacred Spaces:  The Challenges and Consequences of Implementing Security Measures in Religious Congregations."  Journal of Applied Security Research.  13(1):29-44. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19361610.2018.1387736

Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Brian D. Johnson.  2017.  “Organizational Conformity and Punishment:  Federal Court Communities and Judge Initiated Guideline Departures.”  Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 107(2):253-292.  http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc  

Painter-Davis, Noah, Darrell Steffensmeier, and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2017.  “The Intersectionality of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Age in Criminal Punishment.”  Sociological Perspectives 60(4):810-833.  http://doi.org./10.1177/0731121416679371

Harris, Casey and Jeffery T. Ulmer.  2017.  “’Mighty Like a River:’ The Black Protestant Church and Violence In Black Communities.” The Sociological Quarterly 58(2):295-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2017.1296336