John R. Sutton

John R. Sutton, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara

He specializes in historical sociology, the sociology of law, economic sociology, and the sociology of crime and punishment. His recent research has explored how imprisonment is related to a variety of stratification processes in modern Western democracies, including labor markets, educational systems, and social welfare policies. 

Sutton’s research has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Law & Society Review, Social Science Research, and Theory and Society, among others. His books include Stubborn Children, winner of the 1989 C. Wright Mills Award; and Law/Society: Origins, Interactions, and Change, a primer on the sociology of law.

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