Christopher D. Berk

Scholar of punishment, democracy, and custody

I study how democratic ideals operate inside institutions of confinement such as prisons, courts, and youth facilities. My work asks who is authorized to rule in spaces where those subject to power often lack political standing. Across legal theory, law and society, and political thought, I examine how participation, expertise, and reform can reproduce domination even when they speak in the language of democracy.

Book

Democracy in Captivity: Prisoners, Patients, and the Limits of Self-Government
University of California Press, 2023

Efforts to democratize prisons and mental hospitals are often animated by the promise of participation and inclusion.
This book shows how those reforms frequently reorganize rather than limit authority, leaving the fundamental structure of custody intact.

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Selected Scholarship

“On Prison Democracy: The Politics of Participation in a Maximum Security Prison.” Critical Inquiry.

A theory-driven analysis of inmate participation and the limits of self-government under custody.

“Must Penal Law Be Insulated from Public Influence?” Law and Philosophy.

A normative argument about when democratic responsiveness can undermine the legitimacy of punishment.

“Children, Development, and the Troubled Foundations of Miller v. Alabama.” Law & Social Inquiry.

Reconsiders the constitutional role of developmental science in juvenile sentencing and highlights the democratic stakes of punishment.

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Teaching & Mentorship

I am an Assistant Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and the director of the First-Year Democracy Lab living-learning community. In the Dem Lab, I work closely with students as they connect their interest in politics and government to institutions in practice through site visits, archival work, and conversations with public officials and community partners.

I regularly teach courses on punishment, democratic theory, and law, and I enjoy mentoring students as they develop independent research projects that bridge normative questions and empirical inquiry.

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