About

Sadé Lindsay, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at Cornell University. She is a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow of the National Institute of Justice and a Health Equity Scholar of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as well as the Scholar Strategy Network. Her research focuses on the intersection of criminal justice policy, punishment, and racial inequality. She investigates how criminal justice policies and practices, including state collateral sanctions, drug laws, and prison education programs, affect individual life chances, social mobility, and overall well-being across different racial groups. Her scholarship has been published in prominent journals such as Criminology, Journal of Marriage and Family, Population Research and Policy Review, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Social Problems. She has received numerous awards from organizations including the American Society of Criminology, the American Sociological Association, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Her research has also been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, and the Center for Engaged Scholarship. Sadé Lindsay is a proud three-time graduate of The Ohio State University.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Law
• Psychiatry
• Criminology
• Engineering
• Business
• Public relations
• Gerontology
• Gender studies
• Social psychology
• Environmental health
• Medicine

Selected publications

• The Unrealized Potential of Audits: Applicant-Side Inequalities in Effort, Opportunities, and Certainty

  Sociological Methods & Research · 2025-05-22

  articleOpen access

  Randomized audits and correspondence studies are widely regarded as a “gold standard” for capturing discrimination and bias. However, gatekeepers (e.g., employers) are the analytic unit even though stated implications often center on group-level inequalities. Employing simple rules, we show that audits have the potential to uncover applicant-side inequalities and burdens beyond the gatekeeper biases standardly reported. Specifically, applicants from groups facing lower callback rates must submit more applications to ensure an eventual callback, have fewer opportunities to choose from, and face higher uncertainty regarding how many applications to submit. These results reflect several sequential and cumulative stratification processes “real-world” applicants face that warrant attention in conventional audit reporting. Our approach can be straightforwardly applied and, we show, is particularly pertinent for employment relative to other institutional domains (e.g., education, religion). We discuss the methodological and theoretical relevance of our suggested extensions and the implications for the study of inequality, discrimination, and social closure.

  PublisherDOI

• Mixed signals from prison? Postsecondary vocational credentials, race, and postrelease employment

  Criminology · 2025-05-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Drawing on signaling theory, this study examines whether postsecondary correctional education (PSCE) credentials—particularly vocational certificates that comprise the majority of PSCE credentials conferred—improve postrelease employment outcomes. Despite renewed bipartisan policy interest in PSCE as a pathway to reduce labor market barriers, existing research has shown mixed and inconsistent economic returns to credentialing, with limited attention to how PSCE credentials interact with persistent racial discrimination to shape job prospects. Through a correspondence audit study of 1502 employers seeking heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) workers, this article advances our understanding of the signaling value of PSCE in skilled trade labor markets. Results indicate that HVAC credentials improved callback chances for applicants with and without prison records, yet this advantage was not adequate for completely overcoming prison record stigma. Although HVAC credentials earned during incarceration operated similarly for Black and White men, the additive effects of racial discrimination and prison record stigma created compounded disadvantages. These findings demonstrate the promise and limitations of PSCE credentials for improving job opportunities and highlight the need for integrated policy solutions that address both prison record stigma and racism in skilled labor markets.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Intersectional bonds: Delinquency, arrest, and changing family social capital during adolescence

  Journal of Marriage and the Family · 2024-08-09

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Objective This study uses an intersectional approach to examine whether bonding and bridging family social capital change after adolescent delinquency and arrest. Background Family social capital (the resources and energy investments parents make in their children) has important implications for numerous youth outcomes. To date, little research has examined how stressful behaviors (like delinquency) and life events (such as arrest) strain or strengthen parent–child relationships, particularly across Black, White, and Hispanic families. Methods Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort, the authors use fixed effects, dynamic panel, and correlated random effects models to analyze how delinquent behavior and arrest impact bonding and bridging forms of family social capital in adolescence. Stratified models by race/ethnicity and gender test whether the effects vary across groups. Results Results show that delinquency is negatively associated with bonding and bridging family social capital. Black girls experienced the sharpest reduction in family social capital resulting from delinquent behavior. Arrest was significantly associated with decreased bridging capital for Hispanic boys and increased bridging capital for Black girls. Conclusion Delinquency creates stress for parents and reduces investments in children, especially for Black girls. The effects of arrest vary by race and gender. Implications This study demonstrates the dynamism of family social capital and the impact of adolescent delinquency and arrest on parent–child ties, providing insights into the racialized and gendered development of family social capital amid heightened concern about youth deviance and incarceration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The State You See: How Government Visibility Creates Political Distrust and Racial Inequality <i>by Aaron J. Rosenthal</i>

  Political Science Quarterly · 2024-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Journal Article The State You See: How Government Visibility Creates Political Distrust and Racial Inequality by Aaron J. Rosenthal Get access Aaron J Rosenthal. Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press, 2023. 261 pp. $80.00. Sadé L Lindsay Sadé L Lindsay Cornell University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, qqae076, https://doi.org/10.1093/psquar/qqae076 Published: 17 July 2024

  PublisherDOI

• An Attractive Target: Do Perceptions of Physical Attractiveness Shape Victimization Risks in Women’s Prisons?

  Victims & Offenders · 2024-05-20 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Emerging research suggests that physical attractiveness may yield outcomes beyond preferential treatment, such as increasing the vulnerability to victimization during adolescence. Despite growing awareness of individual and institutional victimization risk factors during incarceration, research has yet to consider the role of physical attractiveness. Drawing on survey data collected from 223 women across two Pennsylvania prisons, this article investigates whether perceptions of physical attractiveness operate as protective or risk factors for victimization experienced while incarcerated. Logistic regression results show a significant positive association between interviewer-assessed perceptions of physical attractiveness and incarcerated women's self-reported resident-on-resident victimization. Dominance analysis results indicate that perceptions of physical attractiveness ranked nearly as high as histories of abuse in predicting incarcerated women's risk of victimization. This study uncovers an unintended consequence of physical attractiveness for imprisoned women, demonstrating their heightened susceptibility to in-prison victimization.

  PublisherDOI

• Book Review: <i>Prisons of Debt: The Afterlives of Incarcerated Fathers</i> by Lynne Haney

  Gender & Society · 2023-03-13

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Liberalization of Cannabis Possession Laws and Birth Outcomes: A State-Level Fixed Effects Analysis, 2003–2019

  Population Research and Policy Review · 2022-04-11

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Damned if you do, damned if you don't: How formerly incarcerated men navigate the labor market with prison credentials*

  Criminology · 2022 · 46 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Criminology

  Abstract Although employment is central to successful reentry, formerly incarcerated people struggle to find work because of criminal stigma, poor education, and sparse work histories. Prison credentials are proposed as one solution to alleviate these challenges by signaling criminal desistance and employability. Evidence regarding their efficacy, however, is inconsistent. In this article, I develop a novel explanation— the prison credential dilemma —highlighting the numerous and contradictory ways employers may interpret prison credentials as positive and negative signals. Drawing on 50 qualitative interviews with formerly incarcerated men in Franklin County, Ohio, I examine how the prison credential dilemma and the uncertainty it produces shape their job search strategies and pathways to employment. I find that participants concealed or obscured institutional affiliations of prison credentials on job applications to signal employability rather than their criminal records. In job interviews, however, prison credentials were used to divert conversations away from their criminal record toward skills and criminal desistance via the use of redemptive narratives. Participants also attempted to acquire credentials outside of prison and/or pursued temporary, precarious jobs, aspiring for such physically strenuous and poorly paid work to materialize into stable employment. This study has implications for prison programming as well as policies and practices aiming to improve reentry outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Criminalized or Medicalized? Examining the Role of Race in Responses to Drug Use

  Social Problems · 2021 · 49 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Criminology

  Abstract Drug policy has shifted from intense criminalization toward reforms that prioritize decarceration and treatment. Despite this shift, little is known about whether support for recent treatment-oriented drug policy is equitable by users’ race and the drug type. Using the opiate and crack cocaine crises as cases, we analyze 400 articles from the New York Times and Washington Post to assess the degree to which the two crises were racialized, criminalized, and medicalized. We find that media coverage medicalized and humanized White people who use opiates, while coverage of crack cocaine focused on criminalization, vilifying Black people who use drugs. We then conduct two vignette experiments (N=308; N=630) to examine whether these racialized frames shape public support for treatment or criminalization. We find the public more likely to support criminalization for Black people, while supporting drug treatment for White people. Respondents are more likely to support drug treatment for heroin use than for crack cocaine. Our findings suggest that support for medicalized approaches to drug use is more likely to occur for White people and drugs linked to White people, while Black people and drugs associated with Black people continue to be perceived as largely amenable to punitive options.

  PublisherDOI

• Further Consideration of the Impact of Tobacco Control Policies on Young Adult Smoking in Light of the Liberalization of Cannabis Policies

  Nicotine & Tobacco Research · 2021 · 12 citations

  • Political Science
  • Environmental health
  • Business

  INTRODUCTION: Changing patterns of cannabis consumption related to the liberalization of cannabis policies may have a countervailing effect on tobacco use. We analyzed whether cannabis policies have tempered the effects of tobacco control policies as well as the extent to which they were associated with young adult cigarette smoking. AIMS AND METHODS: Combining data on tobacco and cannabis policies at the state, county, and city levels with the nationally-representative geocoded National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 and Census data, we use multilevel regression and fixed effect analyses to examine the impact of cannabis policies on any past 30-day cigarette smoking, frequency of smoking, and past 30-day near-daily smoking among young adults while accounting for community and individual covariates. RESULTS: Tobacco control policies, including significant effects of comprehensive smoking bans, total vending machine restrictions, single cigarette sale restrictions, and advertising restrictions, remain robust in reducing young adult smoking, net of cannabis policy liberalization, including the legal status of possession, penalties for sale, and medical cannabis. Cannabis policies do not directly affect young adult smoking patterns in an adverse way. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides evidence that the liberalization of cannabis laws has not adversely affected the efficacy of tobacco control efforts. IMPLICATIONS: While the effects of tobacco control policies on smoking are well-established, little research has considered how the liberalization of cannabis policies may affect these relationships, which is important given the co-use of these substances. This paper provides evidence that the liberalization of cannabis laws has not adversely affected tobacco control efforts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Mike Vuolo

  The Ohio State University

  5 shared

• Brian C. Kelly

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  3 shared

• Laura C. Frizzell

  The Ohio State University

  1 shared

• Christie Sennott

  1 shared

• Scott Duxbury

  1 shared

• Story Edison

  The Ohio State University

  1 shared

• Tom R. Leppard

  North Carolina State University

  1 shared

• Bradley R. E. Wright

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Awards from the American Society of Criminology
• Awards from the American Sociological Association
• Awards from the Society for the Study of Social Problems