Benjamin R. Weiss
Photo by Marc Campos
I am an assistant professor of sociology at Occidental College, where I specialize in gender; crime, law, and deviance; and organizations. My research asks how public, private, and nonprofit actors come together to define and address social problems.
My empirical case is the anti-gender-based violence field. I'm currently writing a book, under advance contract with the University of California Press, called The Rape Racket: How the Pursuit of Profit Perverts Victims' Access to Civil Justice. In it, I show how financial motivations built into the civil legal system complicate — often along the lines of class, race, age, and gender — sexual violence victims' ability to file, win, and benefit from lawsuits. Previously, I conducted fieldwork in a rape crisis center to learn how stakeholders — activists, nonprofit professionals, healthcare providers, and the police — negotiate complex and sometimes contradictory ideas about gender-based violence in order to treat victims.
I'm on leave during the 23-24 academic year. In Spring 2024, I'll be in Vilnius, Lithuania, as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar.
My research appears in Social Problems, Theory and Society, and Qualitative Sociology, among other venues. I received my Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California and my B.A. in sociology from Occidental College.