Cassia Spohn

Dr. Cassia C. Spohn is a Regents Professor and Foundation Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University (ASU), where she has held various leadership roles, including Director and Interim Director of the school. Her scholarly career spans over four decades and is characterized by deep expertise in criminal justice, prosecutorial and judicial decision-making, and the intersection of race, gender, and justice. Dr. Spohn earned her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since then, she has held tenured faculty and leadership positions at both the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Arizona State University, gaining a national and international reputation for her cutting-edge research and impactful teaching. Her research has been continuously funded by prestigious institutions such as the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, and Arnold Ventures, among others. Her projects cover a wide range of critical topics in the justice system, including sentencing disparities, the effectiveness of criminal justice reforms, sexual assault case processing, racial and ethnic bias in jury selection, pretrial outcomes, and employment consequences of imprisonment. A prolific academic, Dr. Spohn has authored or co-authored numerous books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and book chapters, significantly shaping discourse around crime, law, race, and policy reform. Her book Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault: Inside the Criminal Justice System remains a seminal contribution to understanding institutional responses to sexual violence. She has been recognized with numerous awards for her research, scholarship, and service, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology, the Paul Tappan Award from the Western Society of Criminology, and the Bruce Smith Sr. Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology, the Western Society of Criminology, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Dr. Spohn's teaching portfolio is as broad and impactful as her research, spanning graduate and undergraduate courses in sentencing, race and justice, sexual assault, women and crime, and criminal court systems. She has mentored countless graduate students and early-career scholars, emphasizing critical thinking, empirical rigor, and policy relevance. With a commitment to bridging research and practice, she has served as a consultant on projects addressing crime reduction, recidivism, and systemic reforms in the U.S. and internationally, including in Trinidad and Tobago. Her current projects continue to focus on the ways institutional decisions perpetuate disparities and how policy interventions can meaningfully reform justice outcomes.