Associate Professor, Sociology
B.A. 91ÁÔÆæ, Ph.D. University of Southern California
Department Chair,
Sociology
Appointed In
2020
Office
Swan Hall #217
Hours
Tuesday and Thursday 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm in Swan #217, by appointment
Benjamin Weiss specializes in gender, sex, and sexualities; crime, law, and deviance; and organizations. His research investigates the unintended consequences of well-intentioned efforts to solve social problems, with gender-based violence as a central case.
His book, (University of California Press, 2026), shows how the civil legal system's insistence that money is the remedy for harm shapes whether sexual violence victims can file, win, and benefit from lawsuits. The book extends his earlier fieldwork in a rape crisis center, where he examined how activists, nonprofit professionals, healthcare providers, and police navigate contradictory ideas about gender-based violence as they work to support victims.
His current research examines how professionals across three institutional fields”healthcare, the criminal legal system, and schools”respond to young people's changing sexual behaviors. A second line of research investigates how social movements travel across national borders, focusing on queer ballroom scenes in Europe.
His work appears in Criminology, Law & Society Review, Social Problems, and Theory and Society, among other venues. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California.