David J. Harding

David J. Harding

David J. Harding

Professor
On sabbatical, 2026-27
Office
452
Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae373.47 KB
Research Interests
poverty, inequality, causal inference, mixed methods, criminal legal systems, education, neighborhood effects, culture, urban communities

David Harding studies poverty and inequality, urban neighborhoods, education, culture, and the criminal legal system using both quantitative and qualitative methods. 

Contact David Harding via email at dharding@berkeley.edu.

 

Representative Publications

Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration

Bruce Western and David J. Harding. 2022. “Careers in criminalization: Reentry, recidivism, and repeated incarceration.” Crime and Justice 51(1):435-469.

David J. Harding, Bruce Western, and Jasmin Sandelson, editors. 2022.  From Punishment to Opportunity: Rethinking Community Supervision. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 701(1). 

David J. Harding, Bruce Western, and Jasmin Sandelson. 2022. “Rethinking Community Supervision.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 701(1), 8–25.

David J. Harding and Heather M. Harris. 2020. After Prison: Navigating Adulthood in the Shadow of the Justice System. Russell Sage. (with chapters by Michael Menefee, Veronique Irwin, Joe LaBriola, and Keunbok Lee)

Ingrid A. Binswanger, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Anh P. Nguyen, Stanley Xu, and David J. Harding. 2020. “The Association of Criminal Justice Supervision Setting with Overdose Mortality: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.” Addiction 115(12): 2329-2338. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15077 

Josh Seim and David J. Harding. 2020. “Parolefare: Post-prison Supervision and Low-Wage Work” RSF: Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6(1) 173-195. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2020.6.1.08 

Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, David J. Harding, and Heather M. Harris. 2020. “Race and the Geography of Opportunity in the Post-Prison Labor Market.” Social Problems 68(2):  438-489. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaa018 

 Borschmann R, Tibble H, Spittal MJ, Preen D, Pirkis J, Larney S, Rosen DL, Young, J, Love, A, Altice FL, Binswanger IA, Bukten A, Butler T, Chang Z, Chen CY, Clausen T, Christensen P, Culbert, G, Degengardt L, Dirkzwager AJE, Dolan K, Fazel S, Fischbacher C, Giles M, Graham L, Harding D, Huang YF, Huber F, Karaminia A, Kouyoumdjian FG, Lim S, Møller L, Moniruzzaman A, Morenoff J, O’Moore E, Pizzicato LN, Pratt D, Proescholdbell SK, Ranapurwala SI, Shanahan ME, Shaw J, Somers J, Spaulding A, Stern MF, Viner KM, Wang N, Willoughby M, Kinner SA. 2019. “The Mortality After Release from Incarceration Consortium (MARIC): Protocol for a multi-national, individual participant data meta-analysis.” International Journal of Population Data Science 5(1): 6-13.

David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Jessica J.B. Wyse. 2019.On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration. University of Chicago Press. 

Heather M. Harris and David J. Harding. 2019. “Race, Cumulative Criminal Justice System Involvement, and the Transition to Adulthood After Prison.” RSF: Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. 5(1):223–54. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.10.

David J. Harding, Jonah A. Siegel, and Jeffrey D. Morenoff. 2017. “Custodial Parole Sanctions and Earnings after Release from Prison.” Social Forces 96(2): 909–934. doi: 10.1093/sf/sox047

Keun Bok Lee, David J. Harding, and Jeffrey D. Morenoff. 2017. “Trajectories of Neighborhood Attainment after Prison.” Social Science Research 66: 211-233.

David J. Harding, Cheyney C. Dobson, Jessica J.B. Wyse, and Jeffrey D. Morenoff. 2017. “Narrative Change, Narrative Stability and Structural Constraint: The Case of Prisoner Reentry Narratives.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology 5(1): 261-304.

Harding, David J., Morenoff, Jeffrey D., Dobson, Cheyney C., Lane, Erin. R., Opatovsky, Kendra, Williams, Ed-Dee, and Wyse, Jessica J. B. 2016. “Families, Prisoner Reentry, and Reintegration.” in Linda. M. Burton, Derrick Burton, Susan M. McHale, Valerie King, and Jennifer Van Hook (Eds.), Boys and Men in African American Families. New York: Springer.

David J. Harding and Christopher Winship. 2016. “Population Growth, Migration, and Changes in the Racial Differential in Imprisonment in the U.S., 1940-1980.”  Social Sciences 5(3) 1-37. (special issue on the Demography of Crime, Mass Incarceration, and Population Regulation; Bryan L. Sykes, editor). 

Claire W. Herbert, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and David J. Harding. 2015. “Homelessness and Housing Insecurity among Former Prisoners.” RSF: Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 1(2): 44-79. 

Jeffrey D. Morenoff and David J. Harding. 2014. “Prisoner Reentry and Communities.” Annual Review of Sociology 40: 411-29.

Jessica Wyse, David J. Harding, and Jeffrey Morenoff. 2014. “Romantic Relationships and Criminal Desistance: Processes and Pathways.” Sociological Forum 29(2): 365-385.

David J. Harding, Jessica Wyse, Cheyney Dobson, and Jeffrey Morenoff. 2014. "Making Ends Meet after Prison.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 33 (2): 440–470.

David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Claire Herbert. 2013. “Home is Hard to Find: Neighborhoods, Institutions, and the Residential Trajectories of Returning Prisoners.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 647: 214-236.

Jeffrey D. Morenoff and David J Harding. 2011. “Neighborhoods, Recidivism, and Employment Among Returning Prisoners.” Final Technical Report, NIJ Grant 2008-IJ-CX-0018. 132 pp. 

David J. Harding. 2000. “The Human Capital Consequences of Incarceration: Evidence from Interviews with Parolees,” Corrections Management Quarterly 4(3): 60-75.

Bruce Western, Katherine Beckett, and David Harding. 1998. “The Penal System and the American Labor Market,” Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 124: 27-35. (In French.) 

  • Reprinted in German in Der Lohn der Angst: Flexibilitat und Kriminalitat in der “neuen Arbeitsgesellschaft,” edited by Pierre Bourdieu. Constance: UVK Universitatsverlag Konstanz, 2001.

 

Effects of Incarceration

Catalina Franco, David J. Harding, Shawn D. Bushway, and Jeffrey D. Morenoff. 2024. “Does Re-Imprisonment for Technical Violations Prevent Crime?” Journal of Human Resources 1222-12719R3. 

Michael R. Menefee, David J. Harding, Anh P. Nguyen, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Shawn D. Bushway. 2021. “The Effect of Split Sentences on Employment and Future Criminal Justice Involvement: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.” Social Forces 101(2): 829–863.

David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Anh P. Nguyen, Shawn D. Bushway and Ingrid A. Binswanger. 2019. “A Natural Experiment Study of the Effects of Imprisonment on Violence in the Community.” Nature Human Behaviour 3: 671–677. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0604-8

David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Anh P. Nguyen, and Shawn D. Bushway. 2018. “Imprisonment and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.” American Journal of Sociology 124(1): 49–110.

David J. Harding, Anh P. Nguyen, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Shawn D. Bushway. 2018. “Effects of Incarceration on Labor Market Outcomes among Young Adults.” Pp. 160-188 in Lynn Chancer, Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, and Christine Trost, eds. Youth, Jobs and the Future: Problems and Prospects. New York: Oxford University Press. 

David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Anh P. Nguyen, and Shawn D. Bushway. 2017. “The short- and long-term effects of imprisonment on future felony convictions and prison admissions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (42) 11103-11108. Online October 2, 2017: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701544114 

 

Stigma

Da Eun Jung, David J. Harding, Stephanie Luna-Lopez, and Maria Smith.  2026. ""Everybody Has a Past":  Stigma, Organizational Practices, and Small Business Evaluation of Applicants with Criminal Records.” The Sociological Quarterly 67(1), 81–103.

David J. Harding, Maria Smith, Da Eun Jung, Stephanie Luna-Lopez, and Amanda Glazer. 2025. “Narratives and Destigmatization: The Case of Criminal Record Stigma in the Labor Market.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology 14: 110–142.

Michael Cerda-Jara, David J. Harding, and the Underground Scholars Research Cohort. 2024. “Criminal Record Stigma in the Labor Market for College Graduates: A Mixed Methods Study.” Sociological Science 11(2):42-66.

Audrey Hickert, Shawn Bushway, David Harding, and Jeffrey Morenoff. 2021. “Prior punishment and cumulative disadvantage: How supervision status impacts prison sentences.” Criminology 60: 27–5.9 https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12290

  • In the top ten most cited papers in Criminology, 2022-2023.

David J. Harding. 2003. “Jean Valjean's Dilemma: The Management of Ex-Convict Identity in the Search for Employment.” Deviant Behavior 24(6): 571-595.

 

Research Methods

David J. Harding. 2025. “Natural Experiments.” Pages 334-345 in Taha Yasseri, ed. Handbook of Computational Social Science. Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Ashkan Ertefaie, Jesse Y. Hsu, Anh Nguyen, David Harding, Jeffrey Morenoff, and Dylan S. Small. 2025. “Sensitivity Analysis and Power in the Presence of Many Weak Instruments:  Application to the Effect of Incarceration on Future Earnings.” Annals of Applied Statistics 19(2): 847-865.

Sandrine Chausson, Marion Fourcade, David J. Harding, Bjorn Ross, and Gregory Renard. 2025. “The Insight-Inference Loop: Efficient Text Classification via Natural Language Inference and Threshold-Tuning.” Sociological Methods and Research 55(2):568-615.

Ruoqi Yu, Dylan S. Small, David Harding, Jose Aveldanes, Paul R. Rosenbaum. 2021. “Optimal Matching for Observational Studies that Integrate Quantitative and Qualitative Research.” Statistics and Public Policy 8(1), 42-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/2330443X.2021.1919260

Ashkan Ertefaie, Anh Nguyen, David Harding, Jeffrey Morenoff, and Wei P. Yang. 2018. “Instrumental variable analysis with censored data in the presence of many weak instruments: Application to the effect of being sentenced to prison on time to employment.” Annals of Applied Statistics 12(4): 2647-2673. https://doi.org/10.1214/18-AOAS1174

Ingrid A. Binswanger, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, David J. Harding, and Charley Chilcote. 2017. "Ascertainment of Vital Status among People with Criminal Justice Involvement using Department of Corrections Records, the U.S. National Death Index, and Social Security Master Death Files." American Journal of Epidemiology 185 (10): 982-985.

David J. Harding and Kristin Seefeldt. “Mixed Methods and Causal Analysis.” 2013. Handbook of Causal Analysis for Social Research, Stephen L. Morgan, ed. Springer. 

Christopher Winship and David J. Harding. 2008. “A General Strategy for the Identification of Age, Period, Cohort Models: A Mechanism Based Approach,” Sociological Methods and Research 36(3): 362-401. 

Stephen L. Morgan and David J. Harding. 2006. “Matching Estimators of Causal Effects: Prospects and Pitfalls in Theory and Practice.” Sociological Methods and Research 35(1): 3-60. 

  • Reprinted in Stephen L. Morgan and Christopher Winship. 2007. Counterfactuals and Causal Inference: Methods and Principles for Social Research. Cambridge University Press.

 

Neighborhood Poverty and Neighborhood Effects

Geoffrey Wodtke, Ugur Yildirim, David J. Harding, and Felix Elwert. 2023. “Are Neighborhood Effects Explained by Differences in School Quality?” American Journal of Sociology 128(5): 1472-1528.

Tahlea Salmon, Yuzhou Lin, David J. Harding, and Dylan S. Small. 2023. “Spatial disadvantage and racial disparities in gun homicides.” Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 10: 2490–2495.

David J. Harding, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Greg J. Duncan, Lisa A. Gennetian, Lawrence F. Katz, Ronald C. Kessler, Jeffrey R. Kling, Matthew Sciandra, and Jens Ludwig. 2021. “Reconciling Experimental and Non-Experimental Estimates of Neighborhood Effects on Economic Outcomes for Adults.” Housing Policy Debate 33(2): 453-486. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2021.1881985

Chaeyoung Cheon, Yuzhou Lin, David J. Harding, Wei Wang, Dylan S. Small. 2020. “Neighborhood Racial Composition and Gun Homicides.” JAMA Network Open 3(11):e2027591. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.27591 

Geoffrey Wodtke, Felix Elwert, and David J. Harding. 2016. "Neighborhood Effect Heterogeneity by Family Income and Developmental Period: Evidence from a Counterfactual Model of High School Graduation." American Journal of Sociology 121(4): 1168-1222.

David J. Harding and Peter Hepburn. 2014. "Cultural Mechanisms in Neighborhood Effects Research in the United States." Sociologia urbana e rurale (Urban and Rural Sociology) 104:14-50. 

David J. Harding, Lisa Gennetian, Christopher Winship, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, and Jeffrey Kling. 2011. “Unpacking Neighborhood Influences on Education Outcomes: Setting the Stage for Future Research.” In Whither Opportunity: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances. Greg Duncan and Richard Murnane, eds. New York: Russell Sage; Chicago: Spencer Foundation. p. 277-296.

Geoffrey Wodtke, David J. Harding, and Felix Elwert. 2011. "Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective." American Sociological Review 76(5): 713-736. 

  • Winner of the 2012 Jane Addams Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association

David J. Harding. 2011. “Rethinking the Cultural Context of Schooling Decisions in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods: From Deviant Subculture to Cultural Heterogeneity.” Sociology of Education 84(4) 322–339.David J. Harding. 2010. Living the Drama: Community, Conflict, and Culture Among Inner-City Boys. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Finalist, 2010 C. Wright Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems
  • Winner of the 2012 Outstanding Book Award from the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association

David J. Harding, Michele Lamont, and Mario Luis Small, editors. 2010. “Reconsidering Culture and Poverty.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 629.

Mario Luis Small, David J. Harding, and Michele Lamont. 2010. “Reconsidering Culture and Poverty.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 629: 6-27.

David J. Harding. 2009. “Collateral Consequences of Violence in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods.” Social Forces 88(2): 757-782. 

David J. Harding. 2009. “Violence, Older Peers, and the Socialization of Adolescent Boys in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods.” American Sociological Review 74(3): 445-464.

  • Reprinted in Matson, Ron. 2012. One of the Guys. Kendall/Hunt Publishing.

David J. Harding. 2008. “Neighborhood Violence and Adolescent Friendships.” International Journal of Conflict and Violence 2(1): 28-55. (special issue on Neighborhoods and Violence, edited by Miles Hewstone and Douglas S. Massey).  

David J. Harding. 2007. “Cultural Context, Sexual Behavior, and Romantic Relationships in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods.” American Sociological Review 72(3): 341-364.

David J. Harding. 2003. “Counterfactual Models of Neighborhood Effects: The Effect of Neighborhood Poverty on High School Dropout and Teenage Pregnancy.” American Journal of Sociology 109(3): 676-719.  (Mathematica Command File for Sensitivity Analysis) (Stata Command File for Sensitivity Analysis)

 

Other Work

Claudia Von Vacano, Michael Ruiz, Renee Starowicz, Seyi Olojo, Arlyn Moreno Luna, Evan Muzzall, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton and David Harding. 2022. “Critical faculty and peer instructor development: core components for building inclusive STEM programs in higher education.” Frontiers in Psychology 13:754233. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.754233.

David J. Harding and Martin D. Munk. 2019. “The Decline of Intergenerational Income Mobility in Denmark: Returns to Education, Demographic Change, and Labor Market Experience.” Social Forces 98(4):1436-1464. 

Torres, D. Diego, Jane Rochmes, and David J. Harding. 2017. “Enrollment and Degree Completion at For-Profit Colleges versus Traditional Institutions.” Pp. 159-223 in For-Profit Universities: The Shifting Landscape of Marketized Higher Education, edited by Tressie M. Cottom and W. Darity Jr. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cybelle Fox and David J. Harding. 2005. “School Shootings as Organizational Deviance.” Sociology of Education 78(1): 69-97. 

  • Summarized in “Discoveries: New and Noteworthy Social Research,” Contexts, Fall 2005. 

Katherine Newman, Cybelle Fox, David Harding, Jal Mehta, and Wendy Roth. 2004. Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. New York: Basic Books. [Paperback May 2005]

  • Finalist, 2005 C. Wright Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems
  • Featured at Author Meets Critics Session, Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, August 2006. 

David J. Harding, Christopher Jencks, Leonard M. Lopoo, and Susan E. Mayer. 2004. “The Changing Effect of Family Background on the Incomes of American Adults.” In Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success, Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, and Melissa Osborne, eds.  New York and Princeton: Russell Sage and Princeton University Press.

David J. Harding, Jal Mehta, and Katherine Newman. 2003. “No Exit: Mental Illness, Marginality, and School Violence in West Paducah, Kentucky.” In National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence. Case Studies of School Violence Committee. Mark H. Moore, Carol V. Petrie, Anthony A. Braga, and Brenda L. McLaughlin, Editors. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

David J. Harding and Christopher Jencks. 2003. “Changing Attitudes Toward Pre-Marital Sex: Cohort, Period, and Aging Effects.” Public Opinion Quarterly 67(2): 211-226.

David J. Harding, Cybelle Fox, and Jal D. Mehta. 2002. “Studying Rare Events Through Qualitative Case Studies: Lessons from a Study of Rampage School Shootings.” Sociological Methods and Research 31(2): 174-217.

 

 

 

 

 

after prison book cover
on the outside book cover
living the drama book cover