Jeffery T. Ulmer
Curriculum Vitae
Mailroom: 430 Burrowes Building
Education
Professional Bio
Research and Teaching Interests
Dr. 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
Galvin, Miranda and Jeffery T. Ulmer. In press. “Gatekeeping Treatment: Alternative Sentences, Race, and ‘Salvageability.’” Justice Quarterly. 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 21st 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
Light, Michael and Jeffery T. Ulmer. 2016. "Explaining the Gaps in White, Black, and Hispanic Violence Since 1990: Accounting for Immigration, Incarceration, and Inequality." American Sociological Review 81(2):290-315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416635667
Ulmer, Jeffery T., Noah Painter-Davis, and Leigh Tinik. 2016. "Disproportional Imprisonment of Black and Hispanic Males: Sentencing Discretion, Processing Outcomes, and Policy Structures." Justice Quarterly 33:642-681 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2014.958186
Ulmer, Jeffery T. and Julia Laskorunsky. 2016. "The Role of Juvenile Adjudications in the Disproportional Incarceration of African American and Hispanic Defendants." Journal of Crime and Justice 39(1):9-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2015.1133494 (Reprinted in Jennifer H. Peck (ed.) 2017. Race and Ethnicity in the Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems: Contemporary Issues of Offending Behavior and Judicial Responses. New York: Routledge).