Amy Adamczyk

Dr. Amy Adamczyk is Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Programs of Doctoral Study in Sociology and Criminal Justice at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).  In 2005 she received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the Pennsylvania State University. She holds MA degrees from the University of Chicago and the Graduate Center/ Queens College, and she completed her BA degree at Hunter College. In 2016 she served as the Chair of the Department of Sociology (interim) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. For the 2019-2020 school year she was the Deputy Executive Officer (interim) of the Ph.D. Program in Criminal Justice at The Graduate Center. Her research focuses on how different contexts (e.g. nations, counties, friendship groups), and personal religious beliefs shape people’s deviant, criminal, and health-related attitudes and behaviors. Her research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, Justice Quarterly, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science Research, Social Science Quarterly, Sociological Quarterly, Sociology of Religion, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

In 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016, and 2019 she was the recipient of John Jay College’s Research Excellence Award, and in 2011 she received the John Jay College's  Midcareer Award.  Her research has been supported with grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust of Nassau, Bahamas, and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

In 2021 her coauthored book, Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation (Oxford University Press), was selected as a finalist for Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year Award, Marriage & Family Category. In 2017 Professor Adamczyk published, Cross-National Public Opinion about Homosexuality (University of California Press), which received the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences International Section Outstanding Book Award for 2018. She is currently working on a book that uses survey data, interviews, and newspaper articles to examine the factors shaping differences in public opinion about abortion across the world.