Jessica T. Simes

Jessica (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University. Her scholarship broadly examines the consequences of mass incarceration for communities and neighborhoods in the United States. Her research to date has focused on racial inequality and health disparities in criminalizing and punitive experiences. She is the author of Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment (University of California Press, 2021), winner of the 2022 Robert E. Park Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association. Jessica's research has been published in a wide range of academic outlets, including PLOS One, Science Advances, Journal of Urban Health, City & Community, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. Her work has been supported by grants from National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Arnold Ventures, and the Social Science Research Council. Jessica received her B.A. in Sociology from Occidental College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University.