Sarah Brayne
Author Details
- Full Name: Sarah Brayne
- Year of Birth: 1984
- Year of Death:
- Country: United States
- Discipline: Criminology, Policing Studies, Sociology, Sociology of Deviance, Sociology of Power, Surveillance Studies, Urban Sociology
- Themes:
Surveillance, Big Data, Predictive Policing, Algorithmic Decision-Making, Data Justice, State Power, Inequality, Police Technology, Urban Policing, Criminal Justice Reform
Additional Information
Sarah Brayne is an American sociologist whose research explores the intersection of technology, surveillance, and the criminal justice system. An Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Brayne investigates how big data analytics and algorithmic decision-making are transforming policing and social control. Her ethnographic and mixed-methods work offers unique insights into the implementation and consequences of large-scale surveillance systems within law enforcement agencies.
Brayne’s scholarship contributes to critical discussions on surveillance, predictive policing, and data-driven governance. In her acclaimed book Predict and Surveil (2020), she provides one of the first comprehensive sociological analyses of how police departments integrate big data technologies into daily operations. By linking technological innovation to broader social inequalities, Brayne’s work illuminates how algorithmic tools can perpetuate existing disparities in the criminal justice system and reshape the nature of state power.
Key Works
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Brayne, S. (2020). Predict and surveil: Data, discretion, and the future of policing. Oxford University Press.
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Brayne, S. (2017). “Big data surveillance: The case of policing.” American Sociological Review, 82(5), 977–1008.
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Brayne, S., & Christin, A. (2020). “Technologies of crime prediction: The reception of algorithms in policing and criminal courts.” Social Problems, 67(2), 293–311.