Amy E. Lerman

Research Bio

Amy E. Lerman is a political scientist whose research investigates public opinion, civic engagement, and trust in democratic institutions. She is best known for her work on the criminal justice system and its impact on civic engagement, including the award-winning book, Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control. Lerman’s research integrates political behavior, public policy, and data science to understand how governance and inequality shape citizens’ beliefs and participation. Her work contributes to debates on democracy, justice reform, and institutional trust.

She is Michelle Schwartz Endowed Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at UC Berkeley and Faculty Director of the Possibility Lab. Her research has been published in American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, and Journal of Politics. Lerman has received the Woodrow Wilson Award and the Gladys Kammerer Award from the American Political Science Association and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. At Berkeley, she teaches American politics and public policy, mentoring students in empirical political analysis, applied social science, and social innovation.

Research Expertise and Interest

American government, public opinion, civic engagement, criminal justice, public impact research/scholarship, community-engaged research / scholarship, research practice partnership

In the News

Six New Fellows of American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The new UC Berkeley fellows are medical anthropologist Charles Briggs, philosopher John Campbell, neuroscientist Marla Feller, playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, physicist Dung-Hai Lee and political scientist Amy Lerman.

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.
August 22, 2025

Poll: Support for campus diversity policies is sputtering in California

Politico
Juliann Venture and Eric He

GSPP Professor Amy Lerman is featured in POLITICO, sharing insights from new Possibility Lab polling on Californians’ views of campus diversity and antisemitism. Her analysis highlights how debates over DEI have become deeply polarized in today’s political landscape.

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Jul 10, 2022

‘Clean Slate’ Justice Laws Offer a Second Chance—Only to Some

Wired
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July 7, 2022

Why COVID Spread So Fast in California's Prisons

U.S. News & World Report
Cara Murez

An array of problems, including overcrowding, led to a surge of COVID-19 cases in California prisons in 2020-2021, says a new report co-authored by UC Berkeley professor Amy Lerman.

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March 2, 2020

The Lasting Effects of Stop-and-Frisk in Bloomberg's New York

New York Times
Emily Badger
During Michael Bloomberg's years as mayor of New York, stop-and-frisk policing was commonly used to stem crime. Since then, a variety of studies indicate that the strategy wasn't as effective as previously thought, and that it inflicted lasting harm in the community. One study, co-authored by public policy and political science professor Amy Lerman, found that even minor encounters with police can reduce the likelihood of voting, and that aggressive stop-and-frisk tactics can discourage residents' use of services like 3-1-1 to report issues that have nothing to do with crime. "It teaches something really important -- and something really negative -- about what agents of the state and bureaucracies are supposed to be doing in your community, what role they play, what their character is," she says.
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