Sarah Brayne

Sarah Brayne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. Her research focuses on surveillance, technology, punishment, organizations, and inequality. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand whether and how data-intensive surveillance shapes individual trajectories and population-level disparities. Her first book, Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing (Oxford University Press), draws on ethnographic research within the Los Angeles Police Department to understand the social implications of law enforcement’s use of predictive analytics and new surveillance technologies.

In earlier work, Professor Brayne developed a theory of “system avoidance,” using survey data to test the relationship between criminal legal contact and involvement in medical, financial, labor market, and educational institutions.  She also writes on the reception of algorithms in policing and criminal courts, how ordinary people use technology to surveil for the state, and the implications of digital surveillance for law. Current projects investigate whether and how exposure to the criminal legal system shapes racial and ethnic disparities in health, aging, and mortality; how social media data is used in the criminal legal process; and role of surveillance in forced migration. Professor Brayne has published her work in the American Sociological Review, Law & Society Review, Social Problems, Annual Review of Criminology, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Surveillance & Society, and Law & Social Inquiry.  

Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, Professor Brayne taught at the University of Texas at Austin, where she co-founded the Texas Prison Education Initiative. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of British Columbia, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University, and completed a postdoc at Microsoft Research.

More information is available on her personal website.