Andrew V. Papachristos
Professor of Sociology and Faculty Fellow at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research, and the Faculty Director of Corners: the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science
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“The long-term solution, in terms of addressing the inequities in gun violence — not just the absolute number of shootings, but the differences among populations — comes down to fixing communities.”
Andrew V. Papachristos is currently a Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science (Corners), Northwestern University.
Papachristos aims to understand how the connected nature of cities—how their citizens, neighborhoods, and institutions are tied to one another—affect what we feel, think, and do. His main research applies network science to the study of gun violence, police misconduct, illegal gun markets, Al Capone, street gangs, and urban neighborhoods. He is also in the process of completing a manuscript on the evolution of black street gangs and politics in Chicago from the 1950s to the early-2000s. Papachristos is also actively involved in policy related research, including the evaluation of gun violence prevention programs in more than a dozen U.S. cities. An author of more than 50 articles, Papachristos’ work has appeared in journals such as JAMA, The American Sociological Review, Criminology, The American Journal of Public Health, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune, among other outlets. Papachristos was awarded an NSF Early CAREER award to examine how violence spreads through high-risk social networks in several U.S. cities.
Prior to coming to Northwestern, Papachristos was a professor of sociology at Yale University and director of The Policy Lab. He is a Chicago native and earned his PhD from the University of Chicago.
Papachristos is also the Director of the Northwestern Neighborhood & Network Initiative (N3) at the Institute for Policy Research.