Andrew Papachristos is the John G. Searle Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, where he holds appointments as Director of the Institute for Policy Research, Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, and Faculty Director of the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research & Science (CORNERS). A Chicago native, he earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 2007, an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2000, and a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Loyola University Chicago in 1998, summa cum laude. His career includes prior positions as Professor of Sociology at Yale University from 2017 to 2018, Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale from 2012 to 2017, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Harvard University from 2010 to 2012, and Assistant Professor to Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2007 to 2012.

Papachristos specializes in applying network science to the study of gun violence, policing, street gangs, and urban neighborhoods. His research examines how social networks influence the concentration and contagion of violence, with findings showing that gun violence affects a small fraction of the population within high-risk networks. He has evaluated interventions such as Chicago’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, Project Safe Neighborhoods, and violence interruption programs. Author of over 50 articles in journals including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Criminology, and JAMA Internal Medicine, key publications include “Murder by Structure: Dominance Relations and the Social Structure of Gang Homicide” (American Journal of Sociology, 2009), winner of the 2011 Jane Addams Award; “Police Violence and Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community” (American Sociological Review, 2016); “The Corner and the Crew: The Influence of Geography and Social Networks on Gang Violence” (American Sociological Review, 2013); and “Modeling Contagion through Social Networks to Explain and Predict Gunshot Violence in Chicago, 2006 to 2014” (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2017). Awards include the National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award, American Society of Criminology Ruth Cavan Young Scholar Award (2012), two Jane Addams Awards (2011, 2019), and ASC Mentor of the Year (2022). His work, funded by NSF and MacArthur Foundation, has informed policy through partnerships with agencies and communities and received coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. He is completing a manuscript on Black street gangs in Chicago from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Professional Email: avp@northwestern.edu