Tucker Reyes
Research Interests: Law & Society, Inequality, Economic Sociology, Criminology
Education:
MA: Sociology and Education, 2022, Teachers College, Columbia University
BS: Financial Counseling and Planning, 2018, Purdue University
BA: Law and Society, 2020, Purdue University
Bio:
Tucker Reyes is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University at Buffalo. His research centers on law and culture and how this intersection shapes inequality. He has studied the historical progression of the welfare state and public assistance programs and the legal stigmatization of the “undeserving” versus the “deserving poor.” His current research examines the legal history of lending practices in the early twentieth-century U.S. He is also working on collaborative projects examining how at-risk youth conceptualize punishment and the degree to which sociodemographic factors influence social mobility and indebtedness across the life course.
Recent courses taught:
SOC 294: Basic Statistics for the Social Sciences
SOC 307: Criminlogy
SOC 317: Criminal Justice Systems
Publications:
Barr, Ashley B., Mary Nell Trautner, and Tucker Reyes. Forthcoming. Race, Gender, and Juvenile Determinism: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Punishment Attitudes Toward Juvenile Offenders. Race and Justice. https://doi.org/10.1177/21533687251341270
Finkeldey, Jessica G., Christopher R. Dennison, Nicholas Tucker Reyes, Abigayle DiRusso, and Mercedes Brown. Forthcoming. “Contact with and Perceptions of Campus Police Among College Students at a Small-Town University.” Criminal Justice Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/07340168241240450
Reyes, Nicholas Tucker and Spencer Headworth. 2024. “Credit Cars: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Car Loans.” Law & Social Inquiry 49(4), 2184–2212. https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2024.2
Headworth, Spencer and Nicholas Tucker Reyes. 2021. “Welfare Fraud.” The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosw008.pub2
Presentations:
“'No Toxic Tunnel’: Legal Mobilization and Growth Politics in Buffalo, NY’s Kensington Highway Project.” Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, 2025
“Why the Have-Nots Come Out Behind: Status, Stigma, and Inequality in the ‘Litigation Lottery.’” Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, 2025
"Once in debt, always indebted? Examining the impact of student loans on the transition to adulthood.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, 2024
“Race and Childhood Determinism: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Punishment Attitudes Towards Juvenile Offenders.” Law & Society Association Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, 2024
"Intra-generational Mobility and Changes in Substance Use: Objective Mobility, Subjective Mobility, or Both?” American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2023
“Credentialism and Debt in Workforce Development: Examining the Historical Influence of Law, Policy, and Market Deregulation on Workforce Education in the U.S.” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2023
“Collateral Damage: Law and the Advent of Automobile Loans.” Global Meeting on Law and Society in Lisbon, Portugal, 2022
“Automobility on Installments or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Car Loans.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California, 2022
Email: ntreyes@buffalo.edu