Social scientists have long understood that a child’s environment — in particular growing up in poverty — can have long-lasting effects on their success later in life. What’s less well understood is exactly how. A new Harvard study is beginning to pry open that black box.

Today, low-income people seeking resources from the federal government must often work through non-profit organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the constraints that the poor must face today to secure resources through non-profit organizations.

Not all poor neighborhoods are alike. Compounded adversity in harsh and toxic neighborhoods seriously undermines the life chances of children, especially blacks show Manduca and Sampson Read more about Punishing and toxic neighborhood environments independently predict the intergenerational social mobility of black and white children

Black People Are Not All ‘Living in Hell’ Read more about William Julius Wilson's research highlighted in NYT op-ed by Thomas B. Edsall

What’s the Matter With Trumpland? Read more about William Julius Wilson's research highlighted in NYT op-ed by Paul Krugman

The wage gap between white and black men is growing wider Read more about William Julius Wilson's research highlighted in The Economist

It is hard to overstate the importance of the new study on intergenerational racial disparities by Raj Chetty and his colleagues at the Equality of Opportunity Project. Simply put, it will change the way we think the world works.

As a Guggenheim Fellow, Sampson will work on a book project that examines how children navigated the transition to adulthood during the transformation of crime, punishment, and inequality in America during the latter part of the 20th century until the present.

Poisoned Development: Assessing Lead Exposure as a Cause of Crime in a Birth Cohort Followed through Adolescence Read more about Robert J. Sampson and Alix S. Winter in Criminology

Reassessing “Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality”: Enduring and New Challenges in 21st Century America Read more about Robert J. Sampson, William Julius Wilson, and Hanna Katz in the Du Bois Review

Urban mobility and neighborhood isolation in America’s 50 largest cities

• Article as Featured in Science Magazine
• Article as Featured in CityLab.com