Robert J. Sampson is Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. Sampson’s research focuses on crime, urban inequality, the life course, neighborhood effects, civic engagement, “ecometrics,” and the social structure of the contemporary city. The paperback edition of his most recent book—Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect—was published in 2013 by the University of Chicago Press. For his work on the origins of crime and violence and on the influence of neighborhoods on the life course, Sampson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.
