Luis Gascon
Biography
Daniel Gascón is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, the founding Director of The Racial Justice Laboratory, and a Faculty Leadership Fellow at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His PhD is in Criminology, Law & Society with an emphasis in Critical Theory from the University of California Irvine. Dr. Gascón is the lead author of two books, The Limits of Community Policing and Police and State Crime in the Americas. His published articles appear in acclaimed academic journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, Critical Sociology, Du Bois Review, Race & Justice, Social Problems, and Theoretical Criminology. Dr. Gascón has been a resident faculty fellow at the UMass Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Center and a steering committee member of the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network. He has provided expert testimony in media outlets, such as The Boston Globe and NBC Boston. Dr. Gascón is currently developing a book on historical cases of police violence, civil rights organizing, and failed accountability structures in Black and Latino Boston. Currently, he teaches courses on criminology, criminal justice, and qualitative methodology.
Area of Expertise
- Marxist Sociology
- Race & Racism
- Juvenile Gangs
- Crimes of the Powerful
- Transformative Justice
- Qualitative Methodology
Degrees
PhD, Criminology, Law & Society with a Critical Theory emphasis, University of California, Irvine
Professional Publications & Contributions
Books:
- Gascón, D., Mejia-Mesinas, A., Perez, X., Sanabria, J., and Sclofsky, S. (2024). Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Gascón, D. & Roussell, A. (2019). The Limits of Community Policing: Civilian Power and Police Accountability in Black and Brown Los Angelesa. New York University Press.
Book Chapters:
- Gascón, D., Mejia-Mesinas, A., Perez, X., Sanabria, J., and Sclofsky, S. (2024). Introduction: Policing and State Crime: A View from the South. In Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Gascón, D., Mejia-Mesinas, A., Perez, X., Sanabria, J., and Sclofsky, S. (2024). Conclusion: Our South is North. In Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Gascón, D., Seri, G., and Wall, T. (2024). Chapter 14: Defining the State and Its Crimes. In Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Gascón, D. and Barrera, N. (2024). Chapter 15: Observing the State. In Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Gascón, D., Goltz, J., Sanabria, J. and McQuade, B. (2024). Chapter 16: State Policy from Now On. In Policing and State Crime in the Americas: Postcolonial and Southern Perspectives. Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Gascón, D. (2023). Structural Strain, Intersectionality, and Mass Murder: A Case Study of the Isla Vista Shooting. In All American Massacre: The Tragic Role of American Culture and Society in Mass Shootings, edited by Madfis, E. and Lankford, A. New York: New York University Press.
- Gascón, L.D. & Kaufman, J.C. (2010). “Both sides of the coin? Personality, deviance and creative behavior.” In D. Cropley, A. Cropley, J. Kaufman, M. Runco (Eds.), The Dark Side of Creativity (pp. 235-254). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Articles:
- Gascón D. & Freierman L.G. (2026). Before Accelyne Williams: Black Boston’s Long Struggle to Police the Police. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race (online): 1-22. doi:10.1017/S1742058X26100101.
- Gascón, D. (2024). The Hispanic Outreach: Network Analysis of a Community-Based Policing Program in South Los Angeles. Critical Sociology, 50(3), 517-538.
- Gascón, D. (2023). Uncomfortable Kinship: An Ethnography on the Professional World of Gang Experts and Street Outreach Workers in South Los Angeles. Social Justice, Vol. 49 (1): 81-110.
- Gascón, D. & Roussell, A. (2018). An Exercise in Failure: Punishing At-Risk Youth & Families in a South Los Angeles Boot Camp Program. Race & Justice, Vol. 8 (3): 270 297.
- Roussell, A., & Gascón, D. (2014). “Defining ‘policeability’: Cooperation, control, and resistance in South Los Angeles community police meetings.” Social Problems, Vol. 6 (2): 237-258.
Book Reviews:
- Gascón, D. (2026). A Review of Felicia Arriaga’s “Behind Crimmigration.” Critical Criminology. doi:10.1007/s10612-026-09889-w.
- Gascón, D. (2025). Book Review: The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, and the Illusion of Public Input by Cheng, T. Theoretical Criminology, 29(4): 508-515. https://doi.org/10.1177/13624806251363757.
- Gascón, L.D. (2019) "Surviving Gangs, Violence and Racism in Cape Town: Ghetto Chameleons by Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard," American Journal of Sociology 125, no. 3: 881-883.