Tony Cheng
tonykcheng.bsky.social
Tony Cheng
@tonykcheng.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Duke University
PhD Yale Sociology; JD NYU Law

www.tonykcheng.com
Happy to share new paper on "State Actors as Hard-to-Reach Populations"

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
July 21, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
It's hard to believe, but today is the day -- the release date for Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice, a book that @joshpage.bsky.social and I have been working on for most of the past decade. If you’d like to check it out, you can get 30% off by entering the code UCPNEW.
Legal Plunder
A searing, historically rich account of how US policing and punishment have been retrofitted over the last four decades to extract public and private revenues from America’s poorest and most vulnerabl...
press.uchicago.edu
July 8, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
👉 happy to see another thematic book review out on the slate of new books on policing (inc The Minneapolis Reckoning), this time focused on the failures of police reform by Daniel Krasnicki in SRE. cc @tonykcheng.bsky.social, @michaelsierraa.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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journals.sagepub.com
April 29, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
Thanks so much 🙏
May 6, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
Is it Racist? Is it Sexist? is officially out! Our book dives into how white liberals and conservatives differ in their views, what each gets right and wrong, and how we can all do better.
January 14, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
Need a new grip of sociology on policing? I worked on these 2024 bangers:
↪️ @michellesphelps.bsky.social "The Minneapolis Reckoning" tinyurl.com/MSPMPLS
↪️ @tonykcheng.bsky.social "The Policing Machine" tinyurl.com/TCMachine
↪️ @michaelsierraa.bsky.social "The Danger Imperative" tinyurl.com/MSADanger
January 3, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
When times are tight, do cities cut police or social service budgets more? In a 🚨new study🚨, I find revenue loss is associated with shallow, temporary cuts to policing and deep, enduring cuts to social services.

The article, in Criminology, is free, and I summarize it below.
doi.org/10.1111/1745...
Do austerity cuts spare police budgets? Welfare‐to‐carceral realignment during fiscal crises
Did governments shift funding from their social welfare functions to their criminal justice functions after the 1980s? Studies investigating this possible “punitive turn” have been inconclusive and h...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 6, 2024 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
Was great to hear @tonykcheng.bsky.social present on his new book! Instead of conceptualizing community policing as meaningless, he theorizes it as political mobilization that helps police departments impede reform. Police invocations of “community” are more like curated constructs.
December 4, 2024 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
Big year for policing books at ASC! Lots of panels, including a quadruple-header book salon w/ @michellesphelps.bsky.social @tonykcheng.bsky.social Samantha Simon, and me. 📚

If you come say hi, I’ve got a very groovy sticker for you 💀🚔
November 12, 2024 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
Incredibly generous and insightful review of 3 new policing books by @tonykcheng.bsky.social @michellesphelps.bsky.social and me, out now in Law and Social Inquiry.

Special thanks to Daanika Gordon for taking such care with her read and write-up of our work. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The Boundaries of Twenty-first-Century Policing | Law & Social Inquiry | Cambridge Core
The Boundaries of Twenty-first-Century Policing
www.cambridge.org
October 29, 2024 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, and the Illusion of Public Input by @tonykcheng.bsky.social scrutinises the #NYPD’s #NeighborhoodPolicing model, revealing how it is used to maintain police legitimacy while impeding meaningful reform.

#Review Pascual Cortés wp.me/p2MwSQ-hFs%22
The Policing Machine – review
In The Policing Machine, Tony Cheng scrutinises the NYPD’s Neighborhood Policing model, revealing how police use public input as a tool to maintain control and legitimacy. Based on in-depth ethnogr…
https://wp.me/p2MwSQ-hFs"
October 23, 2024 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Tony Cheng
A new study by @tonykcheng.bsky.social and others shows support for police alternatives increases when people are exposed to information about those alternatives, at least with non-violent incidents. www.nber.org/system/files...
www.nber.org
September 4, 2024 at 6:38 PM
TODAY is the official publication date of The Policing Machine! 🥳

I'd be delighted to give workshop/classroom talks

UChicago Discount Code: UCPNEW
Code for course e-books: CDDC30

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
January 8, 2024 at 4:49 PM
Excited to get the book cover in hand!!

Thanks so much to Robert Vargas, Tracey Meares, & Jonathan Simon for reading and blurbing

And continued thanks to all at UChicago Press for making this process extra special

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
October 31, 2023 at 3:25 PM