Benjamin Weiss is a sociologist specializing in gender; crime, law and deviance; and organizations.
Dr. Weiss’s research examines how public, private, and nonprofit actors come together to define and address social problems. His empirical case is the anti-gender-based violence field. He is currently writing a book, under advance contract with the University of California Press, called The Rape Racket: How the Pursuit of Profit Perverts Victims' Access to Civil Justice. In it, Dr. Weiss shows how financial motivations built into the civil legal system complicate — often along the lines of class, race, age, and gender — sexual violence victims' ability to file, win, and benefit from lawsuits. Previously, Dr. Weiss conducted fieldwork in a rape crisis center to learn how stakeholders, including activists, nonprofit professionals, healthcare providers, and the police, negotiate complex and sometimes contradictory ideas about gender-based violence in order to treat victims.
Dr. Weiss's research appears in Social Problems, Theory and Society, and Qualitative Sociology, among other venues. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California and his B.A. in sociology from Occidental College.