Robert J. Norris
Robert J. Norris
Associate Professor
Social change and legal reform, social justice and critical criminology, politics in the criminal legal system, public opinion, wrongful convictions, capital punishment
Dr. Norris's interests involve change - how it happens and how it is shaped by social, cultural, political, and legal factors. He generally takes a critical, multi-disciplinary approach in thinking about the criminal legal system and is particularly interested in social movements, policy reform, and public opinion. Much of his work has focused on wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice. He is the author/co-author of three books and more than thirty scholarly articles, chapters, and other publications. Dr. Norris co-directs (with Dr. Janani Umamaheswar) the Social Justice Collaborative in the CLS department.
Selected Publications
BOOKS
Norris, Robert J., William D. Hicks, and Kevin J. Mullinix. (2023). The Politics of Innocence: How Wrongful Convictions Shape Public Opinion. New York: NYU Press.
Norris, Robert J., Catherine L. Bonventre, and James R. Acker. (2021). When Justice Fails: Causes and Consequences of Wrongful Convictions (2nd ed.). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Norris, Robert J. (2017). Exonerated: A History of the Innocence Movement. New York, NY: NYU Press.
REPRESENTATIVE ARTICLES
Drummond, Clayton B.* and Robert J. Norris. (2025). An opportunity for abolition: McCleskey, innocence, and the modern death penalty decline. Law & Policy 47.
Madrigal, Andrew J.* and Robert J. Norris. (2022). The good, the bad, and the uncertain: State harm, the aftermath of exoneration, and compensation for the wrongly convicted. Critical Criminology 30: 895-913.
Zalman, Marvin and Robert J. Norris. (2021). Measuring innocence: How to think about the rate of wrongful convictions. New Criminal Law Review 24: 601-654.
Norris, Robert J. and Kevin J. Mullinix. (2020). Framing innocence: An experimental test of the effects of wrongful convictions on public opinion. Journal of Experimental Criminology
Norris, Robert J., James R. Acker, Catherine L. Bonventre, and Allison D. Redlich. (2020). Thirty years of innocence: Wrongful convictions and exonerations in the United States, 1989-2018. Wrongful Convictions Law Review 1: 2-58.
Courses Taught
CRIM 100: Introduction to Criminal Justice
CRIM 402: Punishment and Corrections
CRIM 408: Criminal Courts
CRIM 424: Constitutional Law: Criminal Process and Rights
CRIM 490: Wrongful Convictions
CRIM 490: The Death Penalty
CRIM 491/492: Honors Seminar: Public Perceptions of Wrongful Convictions and Criminal Injustice
CRIM 595/795: Learning from Errors in the Justice System
CRIM 795: Teaching in Criminology, Law & Society
Education
Ph.D., School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany (2015)
M.A., School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany (2011)
B.A., Sociology, UNC-Greensboro (2009)
Dissertations Supervised
Benjamin J. Mackey, Reweaving the Penal Net Through Piecemeal Privatization: A Comparative Case Study of Electronic Monitoring Implementation in Colombia and Chile (2025)
Andrew J. Madrigal, Enduring Harm: Exploring the Impacts of Wrongful Convictions on the Children of Exonerees (2025)
Clayton B. Drummond, Extreme Punishment and Activism in the 21st Century (2025)