My research examines how changes to three core social institutions — work, criminal justice, and housing — have served to produce and perpetuate inequality. I use a variety of quantitative methods to demonstrate disparities in and consequences of exposure to precarious work, the criminal justice system, and housing instability. The first branch of my research explores the causes and consequences of eviction. The second centers on parental work scheduling, child care arrangements, and family structure. The third explores the reach of the criminal justice system, especially in ways that commonly-available data make difficult to measure. Taken as a whole, my work contributes to the literature on housing, families, mass incarceration, employment, and stratification and to our understanding of the equality of opportunity in modern America.
Published
Haas, Jacob and Peter Hepburn. 2025. “Eviction from Manufactured Home Parks.” Urban Studies 1-21. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Hepburn, Peter, Danny Grubbs-Donovan, Nick Graetz, Olivia Jin, and Matthew Desmond. 2025. “Consequences of Eviction-Led Forced Mobility for School-Age Children in Houston.” Sociology of Education 1-19. (PDF, public-facing summary)
- AP: When kids are evicted, they often lose both home and school.
Hagan, Margaret, Peter Hepburn, Justin Steil, and Brandon Weiss. 2025. “Ensuring Housing Stability and Protections for the Nation’s Renters: Avenues for Federal Action.” Housing Policy Debate 1-17. (PDF)
Benfer, Emily, Peter Hepburn, Valerie Nazarro, Leah Robinson, Jamila Michener, and Danya Keene. 2025. “A Descriptive Analysis of Tenant Right to Counsel Law and Praxis 2017-2024.” Housing Policy Debate 1-26. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Graetz, Nick, Peter Hepburn, Carl Gershenson, Emily Lemmerman, Danielle H. Sandler, Sonya R. Porter, and Matthew Desmond. 2024. “Excess Mortality Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic for Renters Threatened with Eviction.” Journal of the American Medical Association 331(7):592-600. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Hepburn, Peter, Renee Louis, and Matthew Desmond. 2024. “Beyond Gentrification: Housing Loss, Poverty, and the Geography of Displacement.” Social Forces 102(3):880-901. (PDF, Public-facing introduction to the article.)
Graetz, Nick, Carl Gershenson, Peter Hepburn, Sonya R. Porter, Danielle H. Sandler, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “A Comprehensive Demographic Profile of the US Evicted Population.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1-6. (PDF, public-facing summary)
- The New York Times: The Americans Most Threatened by Eviction: Young Children.
Leung, Lillian, Peter Hepburn, James Hendrickson, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “No Safe Harbor: Eviction Filing in Public Housing.” Social Service Review 97(3):456-497. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Keene, Danya, Whitney Denary, Annie Harper, Anna Kapolka, Emily Benfer, and Peter Hepburn. 2023. “'A little bit of a security blanket’: Renter experiences with COVID-19 era eviction moratoria.” Social Service Review 97(3):423-455. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Hepburn, Peter, Jacob Haas, Nick Graetz, Renee Louis, Devin Q. Rutan, Anne Kat Alexander, Jasmine Rangel, Olivia Jin, Emily Benfer, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “Protecting the Most Vulnerable: Policy Response and Eviction Filing Patterns during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9(3):186-207. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Rutan, Devin Q., Peter Hepburn, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “The Suburbanization of Eviction: Increasing Displacement and Inequality within American Suburbs.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9(1):104-125. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Hepburn, Peter, Devin Q. Rutan, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “Beyond Urban Displacement: Suburban Poverty and Eviction.” Urban Affairs Review 59(3):759-792. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Benfer, Emily A., Robert Koehler, Alyx Mark, Valeria Nazzaro, Anne Kat Alexander, Peter Hepburn, Danya E. Keene, and Matthew Desmond. 2023. “COVID-19 Housing Policy: State and Federal Eviction Moratoria and Supportive Measures in the United States During the Pandemic.” Housing Policy Debate 33(6):1390-1414. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Leung, Lillian, Peter Hepburn, and Matthew Desmond. 2021. “Serial Eviction Filing: Civil Courts, Property Management, and the Threat of Displacement.” Social Forces 100(1):316-344. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Jin, Olivia, Emily Lemmerman, Peter Hepburn, and Matthew Desmond. 2021. “Neighborhoods with Highest Eviction Filing Rates Have Lowest Levels of COVID-19 Vaccination.” Socius. 7:1-3. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Hepburn, Peter, Renee Louis, Joe Fish, Emily Lemmerman, Anne Kat Alexander, Timothy A. Thomas, Robert Koehler, Emily Benfer, and Matthew Desmond. 2021. “U.S. Eviction Filing Pattern in 2020.” Socius. 7:1-18. (PDF, public-facing summary)
Hepburn, Peter, Renee Louis, and Matthew Desmond. 2020. “Racial and Gender Disparities among Evicted Americans.” Sociological Science. 7:649-662. (PDF, public-facing summary + data + code.
- The ACLU analyzed an early version of our data; you can find their report here.
Hepburn, Peter. 2020. “Work Scheduling for American Mothers, 1990 and 2012.” Social Problems 67(4):741-762. (PDF)
Harrati, Amal, Peter Hepburn, Valerie Meausoone, and Mark R. Cullen. 2019. "Characterizing Trajectories of Work, Disability, and Health in Work and Retirement: A Multi-State Analysis.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 61(11):936-943. (PDF)
Hepburn, Peter, Issa Kohler-Hausmann, and Angela Zorro Medina. 2019. “Cumulative Risks of Multiple Criminal Justice Outcomes in New York City.” Demography 56:1161-1171. (PDF)
Hepburn, Peter. 2018. “Parental Work Schedules and Child-Care Arrangements in Low-Income Families.” Journal of Marriage and Family 80:1187-1209. (PDF)
Chung, Pil H. and Peter Hepburn. 2018. “Mass Imprisonment and the Extended Family.” Sociological Science 5:335-360. (PDF)
Harding, David J. and Peter Hepburn. 2014. “Cultural Mechanisms in Neighborhood Effects Research in the United States.” Sociologia Urbana e Rurale 103:37-73. (PDF)
Public Sociology
Johnson, Sarah, Grace Hartley, and Peter Hepburn. “A New Baseline: Changes to Our Eviction Metrics” 5/8/2025.
Hartley, Grace, Jacob Haas, and Peter Hepburn. “How Much Rental Assistance Did Your Community Receive During the Pandemic?” 5/8/2025.
Johnson, Sarah, Lorae Stojanovic, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filing Patterns in 2024” 4/24/2025.
Hepburn, Peter, Danny Grubbs-Donovan, and Grace Hartley. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filing Patterns in 2023” 4/22/2024.
Vallejo, Camila, Jacob Haas, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filing Patterns in 2022” 3/9/2023.
Hepburn, Peter, Olivia Jin, Joe Fish, Emily Lemmerman, Anne Kat Alexander, and Matthew Desmond. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filing Patterns in 2021” 3/8/2022.
Haas, Jacob, Jasmine Rangel, JUan Pablo Garnham, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filing Trends After the CDC Moratorium Expiration” 12/9/2021.
Rangel, Jasmine, Jacob Haas, Emily Lemmerman, Joe Fish, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: 11 months of the CDC Moratorium” 8/21/2021.
Hepburn, Peter and Renee Louis. “Preliminary Analysis: Six Months of the CDC Eviction Moratorium” 3/8/2021.
Lemmerman, Emily, Renee Louis, Joe Fish, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: Who is being filed against during the pandemic?” 12/21/2020.
Fish, Joe, Emily Lemmerman, Renee Louis, and Peter Hepburn. “Eviction Moratoria have Prevented Over a Million Eviction Filings in the U.S. during the COVID-19 Pandemic” 12/15/2020.
Louis, Renee, Joe Fish, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: Rising Eviction Claim Amounts During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 12/9/2020.
Hepburn, Peter and Renee Louis. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Filings During and After Local Eviction Moratoria” 11/15/2020.
Hepburn, Peter and Renee Louis. “Preliminary Analysis: Shifts in Eviction Filings from the CARES Act to the CDC Order.” 9/22/2020.
Louis, Renee, Alieza Durana, and Peter Hepburn. “Preliminary Analysis: Eviction Claim Amounts During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 8/27/2020.