Faculty Affiliate Alexes Harris is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. Her degrees in the field of Sociology are from the University of Washington (B.A., 1997) and the University of California, Los Angeles (M.A., 1999; Ph.D., 2002). Her research and teaching areas include the juvenile and criminal justice systems, qualitative research methods, and social stratification and inequality. She is currently researching the process and consequences of Legal Financial Obligations assessed to individuals convicted of felonies in Washington State and the process of "re-entry" post conviction. Her research has been published in Law and Society Review and the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.

Major Research Projects:

• “Legal Financial Obligations in Washington State” (with Katherine Beckett).
• “Credit Markets and Inequality” (with Barbara Reskin)

Sample Publications:

• Harris, Alexes.  2008.  “The Social Construction of ‘Sophisticated’ Adolescents:  How judges integrate juvenile and criminal justice decision-making models.”  Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 37:469-506.
• Harris, Alexes.  2007.  “Diverting and Abdicating Judicial Discretion: Cultural, political and procedural dynamics in California juvenile justice.”  Law & Society Review  41(2): 387-428.
• Clark, Reginald, Alexes Harris & Walter Allen.  2005.  “After-School Youth Programs:  How They Affect Black Male Development and Educational Progress.”   Challenge 11(2). 
• Harris, Alexes, and Walter Allen.  2003.  “Lest We Forget Thee…The Under- and Over-Representation of Black and Latino youth in California higher education and juvenile justice institutions.”  Race & Society 6: 99-123.

Contact Information:

Alexes Harris
Email: yharris@u.washington.edu
Homepage: http://www.soc.washington.edu/people/faculty_detail.asp?UID=yharris
Alexes Harris’s CV [ PDF ]