Biography

Faculty Co-Director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center

Dr. Joan Petersilia has spent more than 25 years studying the performance of U.S. criminal justice agencies and has been instrumental in affecting sentencing and corrections reform in California and throughout the United States. She is the author of 11 books about crime and public policy, and her research on parole reform, prisoner reintegration and sentencing policy has fueled changes in policies throughout the nation. A criminologist with a background in empirical research and social science, Dr. Petersilia is also faculty co-director for the Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC), focusing on policies related to crime control, sentencing, and corrections, and developing nonpartisan analyses and recommendations intended to aid public officials, legal practitioners, and the public in understanding criminal justice policy at the state and national levels.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty, Dr. Petersilia was a professor of criminology, law and society in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine, and director of UCI’s Center for Evidence-Based Corrections. She also previously served as a special advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, helping to reorganize juvenile and adult corrections and working with the California State Legislature to implement prison and parole reform. She recently chaired Governor Schwarzenegger’s Rehabilitation Strike Team and was also co-chair of California’s expert panel on offender programs. Dr. Petersilia is a former director of the Criminal Justice Program at the RAND Corporation; former president of the American Society of Criminology; former co-director of the National Research Council’s study on Community Supervision and Desistance from Crime; and former director of the National Research Council’s study on Crime Victims with Developmental Disabilities.

Key Works

• Joan Petersilia, Beyond the Prison Bubble, 35 Wilson Quarterly 52, Winter 2011.
• James Q. Wilson & Joan Petersilia (editors), Crime and Public Policy, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Jeffrey Lin, Ryken Grattet, and Joan Petersilia, Back-end Sentencing and Reimprisonment: Individual, Organizational, and Community Predictors of Parole Sanctioning Decisions, Criminology, Vol 48 (3), pp. 759-796, August 2010.
• Joan Petersilia and Robert Weisberg, The Dangers of Pyrrhic Victories Against Mass Incarceration, 130 Daedelus 124 (2010)
• John Hipp, Susan Turner, and Joan Petersilia, Parolee Recidivism in California: The Effect of Neighborhood Context and Social Service Agency Characteristics,48 Criminology 947 (2010)
• Joan Petersilia, Ryken Grattet, Jeffrey Lin, and Marlene Beckman, Parole Violations and Revocations in California: Analysis and Suggestions for Action, 73 Federal Probation 2 (June 2009).
• Joan Petersilia When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 (originally published 2003).
• Joan Petersilia, Influencing Public Policy: An Embedded Criminologist Reflects on California Prison Reform, 4 Journal of Experimental Criminology 335 (2008).
• Joan Petersilia, California's Correctional Paradox of Excess and Deprivation, in Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, Michael Tonry, ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Joan Petersilia, Richard Rosenfeld, et. al., Parole, Desistance from Crime, and Community Integration, Washington, DC: National Academies Press (Committee on Community Supervision and Desistance from Crime), 2007.
• Joan Petersilia and James Q. Wilson, Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control, San Francisco: ICS Press, 2004.
• Joan Petersilia, Community Corrections: Probation, Parole, and Intermediate Sanctions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

In the News

• Dan Morain: A Risky Shift In Criminal Justice
  The Sacramento Bee, January 08, 2012
• Stanford Law Students Take On Real Policy Issues
  Daily Journal, November 18, 2011
• California Attorney General Kamala Harris Gives Public Talk At Stanford Law School
  Stanford University News, October 31, 2011
• Prisoner 'Realignment:' A Public Safety Nightmare?
  KCRW - Which Way , L.A.?, October 04, 2011

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice, and Social Policy
• Mass Incarceration and Its Effects
• Sentencing, Corrections, and Criminal Justice Policy

Programs

• Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC), Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Joan Petersilia, Joan Turner, Implementing Rehabilitation Principles to Promote Prisoner Re-entry, in Using Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending, Joel Dvoskin, Jennifer Skeem, Ray Novaco, and Kevin Douglas, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Susan Turner and Joan Petersilia, Putting Science to Work: How the Principles of Risk, Need, and Responsivity Apply to Reentry in Using Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending, Joel A. Dvoskin, Jennifer L. Skeem, Raymond W. Novaco, and Kevin S. Douglas (editors), New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, c2012.
• Joan Petersilia, Parole and Prisoner Re-entry, in The Oxford Handbook of Crime and Criminal Justice, Michael Tonry, editor, Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Joan Petersilia, Moving Felons From Prison To Jail Is Smart Move, San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2011, p. A-10.
• Joan Petersilia, Beyond the Prison Bubble, 35 Wilson Quarterly 52, Winter 2011.
• Joan Petersilia, Community Corrections: Probation, Parole, and Prisoner Reentry, in Crime and Public Policy, James Q. Wilson & Joan Petersilia (editors), New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• James Q. Wilson & Joan Petersilia (editors), Crime and Public Policy, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Jeffrey Lin, Ryken Grattet, and Joan Petersilia, Back-end Sentencing and Reimprisonment: Individual, Organizational, and Community Predictors of Parole Sanctioning Decisions, Criminology, Vol 48 (3), pp. 759-796, August 2010.
• Joan Petersilia and Robert Weisberg, The Dangers of Pyrrhic Victories Against Mass Incarceration, 130 Daedelus 124 (2010)
• Joan Petersilia, A Retrospective View of Corrections Reform in the Schwarzenegger Administration, 22 Federal Sentencing Reporter 148 (2010).