I’m an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Duke University.
I study how the way state power is legitimized shapes inequalities within communities. My book “The Policing Machine: Enforcement, Endorsements, & the Illusion of Public Input” (2024, University of Chicago Press) is about how police resist institutional reforms by cultivating political capital from the community constituents they empower.
My research has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Criminology, Social Problems, Law & Society Review, Criminology & Public Policy, City & Community, and Politics & Society. I have a Sociology PhD from Yale University and a J.D. from NYU Law School. Previously, I was an Assistant Professor in UC Irvine’s Department of Criminology, Law & Society.
Please email me at: tony.cheng@duke.edu