Kate K. O'Neill, PhD
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington as part of the Collective to Study the Broad Reach and Burden of Monetary Sanctions. My award-winning work has appeared in publications representative of my interdisciplinary focus, including Feminist Criminology, the Sociology of Race & Ethnicity, Deviant Behavior, and social psychology textbooks. My recent work on the community-level consequences of monetary sanctions has been published by the Russell Sage Foundation and featured in the Seattle Times.
I am a quantiative researcher whose body of work covers gender, racism, and the reproduction of inequalities in delinquency, and punishment. Specific topics studied include behavioral and cognitive development in adolescence, gender differences in delinquency, gangs, social disorganization, critical race theory, and monetary sanctions. My methodological interests include longitudinal analyses, spatial analyses, and the measurement of crime and punishment.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Education
PhD, the University of Washington, 2021
MA, the University of Washington, 2016
MSc, the London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010
BA, the Ohio University 2008
Research Publications
O’Neill, Kate K., Tyler Smith, and Ian Kennedy. 2022. “County Dependence on Monetary Sanctions: Implications for Women’s Incarceration.” in RSF: Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. State Monetary Sanctions and the Costs of the Criminal Legal System, edited by A. Harris, M. Pattillo, and B. Sykes.
O’Neill, Kate K., Ian Kennedy, and Alexes Harris. 2021. “Debtors’ Blocks: How Monetary Sanctions Make Between Neighborhood Racial and Economic Inequalities Worse.” The Sociology of Race & Ethnicity. 8(1): 43-61.
Leverso, John, and Kate K. O’Neill. 2021. “Gang Membership and Victimization: How Gangs Facilitate Violent Victimization of Their Members.” Deviant Behavior.
O’Neill, Kate K. 2020. “The Adolescent Empathy Paradox and Juvenile Offending: Why Sex Differences in Empathic Ability Can Help Explain the Gender Gap in Juvenile Offending.” Feminist Criminology. 15(4): 410-437.
Matsueda, Ross L., Kate K. O’Neill, and Derek A. Kreager. 2020. “Embeddedness, Reflected Appraisals, and Deterrence: A Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Adolescent Theft.” in Symbolic Interaction: Deepening Foundations; Building Bridges, edited by R. Stryker, R. Serpe, and B. Powell. Springer.
Teaching Publications
O'Neill, Kate K. 2021. "Giving Students the Floor." Assignment published in TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. (http://trails.asanet.org)
O'Neill, Kate K. "Women in the Social Structure." Syllabus published in TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. (http://trails.asanet.org)
RESEARCH
ONGOING PROJECTS AND PAPERS: LEAD & CO-LEAD PROJECTS
The Consequences of Mixed-Sex Peer Groups: Delinquency
PhD Dissertation (Dr. Ross L. Matsueda, chair)
This work uses gender and developmental theories to examine short- and long-term continuities in behavior and preference as a product of the sex composition of adolescent peer groups. Guided by gender theory on child and adolescent development and heteronormativity, I argue the transition from the same-sex culture of childhood (see: Maccoby 1998; Thorne 1993) to a mixed-sex culture in adolescence is a key site of socialization into deviant and delinquent behavior. Future iterations of this work will explore how schools and juvenile detention facilities reproduce sex-segregation among adolescent offenders and create barriers to entry into pro-social and platonic mixed-sex spaces.
The Consequences of Mixed-Sex Peer Groups: Occupational Outcomes
PhD Dissertation (Dr. Ross L. Matsueda, chair)
This work uses theories on gender socialization and occupational selection (see: Correll 2004) to examine how the timing, content, and institutional contexts of adolescents' peer group sex composition influences the sex compostion of adults' occupations. I argue the timing and extent of the transition from the same-sex culture of childhood to mixed-sex cultures in adolescence helps explain selection into sex-segregated and/or gender atypical occupations. Ongoing research looks to replicate dissertation findings and to explore how career milestones and mobility are influenced by the sex composition of workers' social networks.
Race, Gender, and Monetary Punishment
Ongoing Research Project (Dr. Alexes Harris, PI)
This work examines how race and gender dynamics intersect (see: Collins 2009, Crenshaw 1991) to produce patterns in the sentencing of monetary sanctions and the incarceration, surveillance, and policing of women. I combine administrative court data, census data, and audit data to describe how women in general, and Black women in particular, are disproportionately punished by the system of monetary sanctions. This project focuses on how the racialization of both people and physical spaces (see: McKittrick 2006) reflects the Anglo- and androcentric structure of the criminal legal system and deliberately punishes women and their communities.
Bargaining with Gang Patriarchy: Girls in Gangs Online
Ongoing Research Project (Dr. John Leverso, collaborator)
This mixed-methods research uses Facebook data from a Chicago-area gang-affiliated online group to examine how girls and women reproduce and challenge gang culture and dynamics through their online personas and interactions. We examine the role of women and girls as both passive instruments used by male gang members to reinforce masculine gang identities, and as self-aware actors who adamantly police the boundaries of gang womanhood using racialized and gendered language and posturing. Using social network and hierarchical analyses and qualitative content analysis of thousands of online interactions, we demonstrate girls and women are rewarded with popularity and protection for upholding the gang patriarchy.
MEDIA
SELECTED FEATURES ON PUBLIC-FACING RESEARCH
Counties That Rely on the Courts for Revenue Sentence More Women to Incarceration
by Kim Eckart
Op-ed: Lift the Burden of Legal Fines and Fees
by Kate K. O'Neill, Alexes Harris, & Ian Kennedy
TEACHING
Whether it's teaching anger management to men convicted of domestic violence, a new business process to Pentagon staffers, or sociological theory to undergraduates, I have always felt at home in the classroom. I believe everyone benefits when we create inclusive, challenging spaces for teaching and learning, and I proudly adhere to that philosophy in developing every lecture, training, discussion, and activity that makes it into my classroom.
Check out some of my sample materials, below, or contact me with requests for a full teaching résumé, teaching statements, or additional course materials.
Sample Syllabi
Click these links to download recent syllabi
Copyright © 2019 - Proudly built with Strikingly