Michael Light

Michael T. Light is Professor of Sociology and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center for Demography and Ecology, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs, the Center for Law, Society & Justice, the Center for German and European Studies, the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership, the Global Legal Studies Center and has been a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security, and Law in Freiburg, Germany.

Much of his work lies at the intersection of law and demography. With dramatic increases in international migration, this research investigates citizenship as an emerging mechanism of legal inequality across Western societies. His research in this area has been published in the American Sociological Review, Law & Society Review, Social Forces, the European Journal of Sociology, and the European Sociological Review. Other work on punishment has focused on racial inequality under the law, published in Crime and Justice, Justice Quarterly, and Criminology & Public Policy.  

A second strand of his research merges inequality and criminology. Work in this area has varied from the criminological consequences of racial stratification (American Sociological Review, Journal of Quantitative Criminology) to the heterogeneous mortality implications of the prison boom (Journal of Health and Social Behavior).

A third major aspect of his research agenda studies the immigration-crime nexus. Within this vein, his work has examined crime among the undocumented (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), the effect of Latino immigration on violence for different racial/ethnic groups (Social Science Research) and the effects of undocumented immigration on drug and alcohol problems (American Journal of Public Health), violent crime (Criminology), and terrorism (Social Science Research).

Current projects include the collateral consequences of deportation (Rockwool Foundation grant), colorism and punishment (Russell Sage Foundation grant), the criminal case processing of immigrants in state courts (National Science Foundation grant, 2019-2021), and crime and recidivism among the undocumented (National Institute of Justice grant, 2020-2022).

Education

2013           Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, Sociology.

2010           M.A., The Pennsylvania State University, Criminology

2007          B.A., Albion College, Albion, MI, Sociology

Recent Publications

Light, Michael T. and Avery Warner. Forthcoming. “Immigration Federalism and Noncitizen Punishment Inequality.” The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing

Light, Michael T. and Karl Vachuska. Forthcoming. “Does Racial Bias Explain the Black-White Sentencing Gap across U.S. Courts?” Social Problems.

Light, Michael T., Jungmyung Kim and Laura Bositen. 2024 “The Empirics of Immigration and Violence: Evidence from California and Texas.” Pp. 232-48 in Taking Stock of Homicide: Trends, Emerging Themes, and the Challenges.

Light, Michael T., Laura Bositen and Jungmyung Kim. 2023. “Did Immigrant Arrest Rates Change During the Trump Administration? Evidence from California and Texas.” Crime & Delinquency.

Light, Michael T., Jason Robey and Jungmyung Kim. 2023. “Noncitizen Justice: The Criminal Case Processing of non-U.S. Citizens in Texas and California.” American Journal of Sociology 129: 162-226.

Jason Robey, Michael Massoglia and Michael T. Light. 2023. “A Generational Shift: Race and the Declining Lifetime Risk of Incarceration.” Demography 60 (4): 977–1003.

Wermink, Hilde, Michael T. Light, and Alicja P. Krubnik. 2022 “Pretrial detention and incarceration decisions for foreign nationals: A mixed-methods approach.” European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 28: 367-380.

Light, Michael T. 2022. “The Declining Significance of Race in Criminal Sentencing: Evidence from U.S. Federal Courts.” Social Forces 100(3): 1110-1141.

Light, Michael T. and Julia Thomas. 2021. “Undocumented Immigration and Terrorism: Is there a Connection?” Social Science Research 94: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2020.102512

Light, Michael T.* and Hilde Wermink. 2021. “The Criminal Case Processing of Foreign Nationals in the Netherlands.” European Sociological Review 37(1): 104-120. (* authorship is alphabetical)

Light, Michael T., Jingying He^ and Jason Robey^. 2020. “Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, lawful immigrants, and native-born U.S. citizens in Texas.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/12/01/2014704117

Light, Michael T. and Isabel Anadon^. 2020. “Immigration and Violent Crime: Triangulating Findings across Diverse Studies.” Marquette Law Review 103(3): 939-61.

 Recent Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

2023-28     H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, UW-Madison

2021-23     Vilas Associate Professorship, UW-Madison

2022           Max Planck Visiting Scholarship, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law. Freiburg, Germany. International competitive research fellowship: €2100.

2021           Department of Sociology’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Wisconsin-Madison