Berkeley’s Nikki Jones Honored by the Western Society of Criminology

Nikki Jones, a professor of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded the 2020 W.E.B. DuBois Award from the Western Society of Criminology for her work in raising awareness for racial and ethic issues in criminology and criminal justice. The Western Society of Criminology is a professional association made up of students, teachers, researchers and practitioners of criminology and criminal justice.

Professor Jones was honored for her books including Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner City Violence (Rutgers University Press, 2010) and The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption (University of California Press, 2018).

Professor Jones is currently working on analyzing videotaped “routine” encounters between police and civilians, most notably the frequent encounters between police and young Black men. Her next book will examine how men with criminal histories from neighborhoods in San Francisco affect their lives and neighborhoods.

Dr. Jones joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. Earlier, she served on the department of sociology faculty at the University of California Santa Barbara from 2004 to 2013. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology and criminology from the University of Pennsylvania.