The American Sociological Association’s Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance invites submissions for the 2026 Distinguished Student Paper Award competition. This award is presented annually for the best paper authored by a graduate student. Papers may be empirical or theoretical and can address any topic in the sociology of crime, law, and deviance. Submissions may be sole- or multiple-authored, but all authors must be students at the time of submission. Papers should be article length (approximately 30 double spaced pages) and should follow the manuscript preparation guidelines used by the American Sociological Review. Papers accepted for publication at the time of submission are not eligible. The winner will receive $500 to offset the cost of attending the 2026 ASA meeting. Nominations may be submitted by the author or by others, and we encourage self-nominations.
Please send a PDF of the paper to the Award Committee Chair, Dr. Bryan Sykes (bls244@cornell.edu) with the subject line CLD Distinguished Student Paper Nomination.
Committee:
- Bryan Sykes (Chair), Cornell University
- Stacy DeCoster, North Carolina State University
- Anne K. Johnson, Washington State University
- Felipe Salazar-Tobar, Kennesaw State University