Research Bio
Nikki Jones is a professor in the department of African American Studies at Berkeley. She served as the H. Michael and Jeanne Williams Department Chair of African American Studies from 2021-2024 and has been on faculty in the UC-system for over twenty years. Her work examines the experiences of Black women, men, and youth with the criminal legal system, policing, and violence. She is the author of two books: Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence (2010) and The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption (2018), which received the Michael J. Hindelang Outstanding Book Award from the American Society of Criminology in 2020. She is currently at work on her third book, Brutal & Routine, which examines the enduring legacy of racist policing in the U.S. and the promise of abolitionist dreams. More recent work includes the analysis of interviews with police officers and the analysis of video recordings of lethal and routine encounters between Black people and the police. Records of these encounters are housed in her research lab. Professor Jones has shared her expertise with numerous print, radio, and television news media outlets, including NPR, KCBS Radio, Axios.com, History.com, BBC World Newshour, Minnesota Public Radio, Time Magazine, KQED’s Forum, Ireland Today, Australia Broadcasting Corporation (The Drum), SF Weekly, The Dallas Morning News, and CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” among others. Professor Jones is also a faculty affiliate with the Center for Race and Gender; the Department of Women and Gender Studies; and the Center for the Study of Law and Society at UC-Berkeley.
Research Expertise and Interest
African American communities, policing, racial/gender disparities and the criminal justice system, violence and violence interventions
In the News
Berkeley professor Nikki Jones wins national award for criminology research
America on edge: Berkeley scholars’ early election thoughts
Berkeley Conversations: Race & the criminal justice system
Featured in the Media
UC Berkeley African American Studies professor Nikki Jones has won the 2020 Michael J. Hindelang Award. The national honor given by the American Society of Criminology recognizes a book published within the past three years that makes the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology. Jones recently received the award for her book The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption. Through the use of ethnographic interviews with inner-city police officers and recordings of police encounters collected by and alongside law enforcement, the book delves into the reasons why violence persists in inner cities, despite the presence of adequate funding and resources.