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Education: PhD, New York University; MA, New York University; BA, University of California-Santa Barbara. At SPU since 2006.

Dr. Karen Snedker has been at SPU for over 15 years. Her teaching focuses on urban sociology, law, homelessness, and criminal justice. She also teaches introductory sociology courses for the general curriculum. Prior to teaching at SPU, Dr. Snedker spent several years as an NIH researcher at the University of Washington in the Psychosocial and Community Health department. She maintains her ties to the UW as a clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing, affiliate faculty in sociology and a CSDE research affiliate. Prior to moving to Seattle, Dr. Snedker lived in New York City and received her master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from New York University.

Dr. Snedker’s research addresses mental health, homelessness, crime and violence, and neighborhood effects. The scope of her published work is broad, and it has appeared in sociology, geography, demography, public health, and crime academic outlets. Her current research areas are mental health and courts and homelessness.

Dr. Snedker’s 2018 book, , exploresthe intersection between mental health and the criminal justice system. The book provides a unique mixed method study of mental health courts within the framework of the larger trend towards problem-solving courts. Findings from this research have also been published in Society and Mental Health and appeared in .

Dr. Snedker is actively involved in homelessness and tent cities in terms of research, teaching, and public outreach. She recently conducted a tent census in the City of Seattle with an undergraduate student research team. This research project and its findings have been published in , , and . She has also worked on campus wide efforts to better . Read a  highlighting her involvement in Tent City 3. In collaboration with Dr. Jennifer McKinney, they designed an innovative research project while SPU hosted a homeless encampment known as Tent City 3. Research findings from this project were recently published in , , and .

Selected publications

McKinney, Jennifer and Karen A. Snedker. 2017. ".” Teaching Sociology 45(3):252-259.

McKinney, Jennifer and Karen A. Snedker. 2016. “.” Contexts. Spring: 80-82. 

Snedker, Karen A. and Jerald R. Herting. 2016. “.” Youth & Society 48(5):695-715.

Snedker, Karen A.  2016. “.” Society and Mental Health 6(1):36-55. 

Bailey, Amy K. and Karen A. Snedker. 2011. “.” American Journal of Sociology 117(3): 844-887.

Snedker, Karen A., Lindsey Beach and Katie Corcoran. 2017. "Beyond the 'Revolving Door'? Incentives and Criminal Recidivism in One Mental Health Court." Criminal Justice and Behavior 44:1141-1162. 

Books authored:

, 2018, Palgrave. 

Please view Karen Snedker's CV for more information.