Lauren Porter

Lauren Porter, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on punishment, incarceration consequences, and the intersection of crime and place. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University at Albany-SUNY (2012), an MA from the same institution (2010), and a BA from Dickinson College (2006). Her work explores how incarceration impacts health, neighborhood environments, and criminal behavior, with a particular interest in formerly incarcerated individuals and high-crime areas.

Key research areas include: social demography, consequences of imprisonment, criminogenic properties of environments, and health disparities among marginalized populations. Her recent projects investigate protective places in high-crime neighborhoods and the mental health implications of incarceration across racial and gender lines.

Lauren has advised graduate students including Cassandra Philippon and Yesenia Yanez. Her research has been featured in journals like Crime & Delinquency, Social Science & Medicine, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. Though on leave during Fall 2021, she remains affiliated with the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at UMD.