David W. Garland

David W. Garland is the Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and holds a joint appointment as Professor of Sociology in NYU’s Department of Sociology. He is a globally renowned scholar of crime, punishment, and the welfare state. His work bridges law, sociology, and history, with a focus on comparative penal systems, modern social theory, and the genealogy of welfare state ideas.

Education:

• PhD, Edinburgh University, 1984
• LLB, Edinburgh University, 1977
• MA, Sheffield University, 1978

Research Interests: Garland explores the historical and sociological dimensions of punishment, crime control, and welfare state development. His current work examines America’s exceptional penal regime, linking it to racialized political economy, neoliberalism, and the minimal welfare state. He also investigates the origins and meanings of the 'welfare state' concept in British discourse.

Distinctions:

• Fellowships: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Academy, Guggenheim
• Honorary doctorates from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2009), Oslo University (2017), and University of Edinburgh (2025)
• Edwin H. Sutherland Prize (2012) for lifetime contributions to criminological theory

Teaching: Courses include America’s Penal State, Law and Social Theory, and Death Penalty: Social and Historical Perspectives. His seminars critically analyze legal institutions, modernity, and the interplay between law and societal structures.

Future Work: His upcoming book (2025) explains how America’s political economy and racial history produced its punitive policing and incarceration systems.