Amy Magnus
Dr. Amy Magnus is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Criminal Justice at California State University, Chico. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine with emphases in Law, Society, and Culture and Race and Justice. She also has a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with minors in Philosophy and Criminal Justice from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Dr. Magnus teaches, researches, and publishes about the intersections of crime, social inequality, and structural deprivation in American society. Her education and expertise center the root causes of crime, including the structural forces in American society that produce strain, hardship, hyper-punitiveness, and conditions and histories in which certain communities have been hyper-policed, arrested at higher rates, and incarcerated in greater numbers.
A Nevadan herself, Dr. Magnus' upbringing in southern Nevada shaped - and continues to shape - her interest in crime, inequality, and social justice. Much of her recent scholarship examines the lived experiences of vulnerable people living rurally in the western United States, rural policing and domestic violence, the impact of rurality on access to resources and social justice, and the lived experiences of people (and their families) who are incarcerated in rural carceral facilities.
She is the author of the forthcoming book, Uphill Battle: The Politics of Rural Inequality, Grassroots Activism, and Social Justice.