Benjamin R. Weiss

My research investigates the unintended consequences of well-intentioned efforts to solve social problems, with gender-based violence as a central case. 

My current book project, The Price of Justice: Money and the Limits of Sexual Violence Lawsuits, is forthcoming with University of California Press (June 2026). In it, I show how the civil legal system’s construction of money as the appropriate remedy for harm complicates sexual violence victims' ability to file, win, and benefit from lawsuits. This work builds on my earlier fieldwork in a rape crisis center, where I examined how stakeholders, including activists, nonprofit professionals, healthcare providers, and police, navigate complex and sometimes contradictory ideas about gender-based violence in order to support victims.

I am also developing two new projects: one on the diffusion of social movements for queer liberation from the U.S. to Europe, and the other on the fight against AI-generated sexual abuse imagery. 

My research appears in Criminology, Law & Society Review, Social Problems, and Theory and Society, among other venues. I received my Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California.