I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Duke University. I am currently on leave as a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation.
I study how the legitimation strategies of criminal legal institutions shape inequalities within communities. My book “The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, & the Illusion of Public Input” (2024, University of Chicago Press) is about how police resist institutional reforms by cultivating political capital from the community constituents they empower.
My research has appeared in journals like the American Journal of Sociology, Criminology, Law & Society Review, and Social Problems. It has received numerous awards, including the American Society of Criminology’s Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award, and has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, Arnold Ventures, and an NSF CAREER Award. I have a Sociology PhD from Yale University (2021) and a J.D. from NYU Law School (2018).
Please email me at: tony.cheng@duke.edu