Rate My Professor Andrew Papachristos

Papachristos specializes in applying network science to the study of gun violence, policing, street gangs, and urban neighborhoods. His research examines how social networks influence the concentration and contagion of violence, with findings showing that gun violence affects a small fraction of the population within high-risk networks. He has evaluated interventions such as Chicago’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, Project Safe Neighborhoods, and violence interruption programs. Author of over 50 articles in journals including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Criminology, and JAMA Internal Medicine, key publications include “Murder by Structure: Dominance Relations and the Social Structure of Gang Homicide” (American Journal of Sociology, 2009), winner of the 2011 Jane Addams Award; “Police Violence and Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community” (American Sociological Review, 2016); “The Corner and the Crew: The Influence of Geography and Social Networks on Gang Violence” (American Sociological Review, 2013); and “Modeling Contagion through Social Networks to Explain and Predict Gunshot Violence in Chicago, 2006 to 2014” (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2017). Awards include the National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, American Society of Criminology Ruth Cavan Young Scholar Award (2012), two Jane Addams Awards (2011, 2019), and ASC Mentor of the Year (2022). His work, funded by NSF and MacArthur Foundation, has informed policy through partnerships with agencies and communities and received coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. He is completing a manuscript on Black street gangs in Chicago from the 1950s to the 2000s.