Kristin Turney

Kristin Turney is dean’s professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and professor by courtesy in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. At UC Irvine, she is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy (CPIP), the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, and the Initiative to End Family Violence. She is also a research affiliate at the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin. She was previously a senior fellow with the UC Criminal Justice and Health Consortium and affiliate with the Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute. She was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar. Dr. Turney is a researcher and educator who investigates the role of stressors in creating, maintaining, and exacerbating social inequalities in health and wellbeing. Her current approach uses quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the repercussions of stressors (particularly, but not exclusively, those stemming from the criminal legal system) on families and children. She is presently working to bring greater transparency to the conditions inside jails and prisons through the creation of a digital archive, PrisonPandemic. Dr. Turney holds a PhD and MA in sociology jointly from the University of Pennsylvania along with a BA in sociology and journalism from Northwestern University.

updated 2024