Rate My Professor Craig Haney

Craig Haney is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received a B.A. in psychology magna cum laude with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, an M.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1972, a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1978. Haney began his academic career as Acting Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University from 1976 to 1977. He joined the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1977 as a Lecturer in Psychology, progressed to Assistant Professor from 1978 to 1981, Associate Professor from 1981 to 1985, Professor from 1985 to 2014, and was appointed Distinguished Professor in 2014. He served as University of California Presidential Chair from 2015 to 2018.

Haney's research applies social psychological principles to legal and civil rights issues, with specializations in the psychological effects of long-term incarceration and solitary confinement in supermax prisons, capital punishment processes, jury decision-making, and the social histories of individuals convicted of violent crimes. He has interviewed thousands of prisoners, including those on death row. Key publications include Death by Design: Capital Punishment as a Social Psychological System (Oxford University Press, 2005), Reforming Punishment: Psychological Limits to the Pains of Imprisonment (American Psychological Association, 2006), The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences (National Academies Press, 2014, co-author), and Criminality in Context: The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform (American Psychological Association, 2020). Haney has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the California Legislature, and in federal court cases, including a 1999 challenge to supermax conditions cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. He served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration (2012). Awards include the UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award (2002), Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Academic Senate (2000, 2015), Psi Chi Best Lecturer Award (2009), Herbert Jacobs Prize for the outstanding book on law and society (2006), and Distinguished Faculty Research Lecturer (2014). He teaches courses including Psychology and Law.