Robert J. Sampson

I study crime, the life course, and urban inequality at Harvard University. Previously I taught at the University of Chicago, where I was fortunate to help launch a study in 1995 that followed children for three decades. My latest book, “Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans,” tells the story of this project. In it I focus on how when we are born shapes who we become.