Chiara Packard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah.

Her research interests are in the sociology of punishment, law and society, criminalization of poverty, and inequality. Her work is motivated by a concern for how systems of punishment can exacerbate race and class inequalities and further marginalize vulnerable groups. She has published work in Law & Social Inquiry, Violence Against Women, and other venues.

Chiara’s book project turns the scholarly gaze upwards, to one of the most powerful, yet understudied, actors in the criminal legal system: prosecutors. She spent twelve months conducting ethnographic fieldwork in two mid-sized Midwestern District Attorney’s offices, shadowing prosecutors to understand how they make decisions about charging, plea-bargaining, and sentencing recommendations.

Chiara’s research has been generously supported by the American Sociological Association (ASA DDRIG), the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, the UW-Madison Graduate School, and the University of Wisconsin Law School and Institute for Legal Studies. One of her articles was the winner of the Lindesmith Graduate Student Paper Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems’ Law & Society Division, received Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Student Paper Award from the American Society of Criminology’s Crime, Law, and Deviance Section, and received third place for the Gene Carte Student Paper Award from the American Society of Criminology.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about Chiara’s research. You can also follow her on Twitter @chiarapack.

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