Dr. Amy Adamczyk, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Programs of Doctoral Study in Sociology and Criminal Justice at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). Trained as a sociologist of religion, her research focuses on how different contexts (e.g. nations, counties, friendship groups), and personal religious beliefs shape people’s deviant, criminal, and health-related attitudes and behaviors. She received her PhD. in Sociology from the Pennsylvania State University. She holds MA degrees from the University of Chicago and the Graduate Center/ Queens College, and she completed her BA degree at Hunter College.
She is the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the International Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences for Public Opinion about Homosexuality: Examining Attitudes Across the Globe. Her coauthored book, Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass their Religion on to the Next Generation, was a finalist for Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year Award, Marriage & Family Category. In addition to her two books, she has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in well-regarded journals like the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Science Research, and Justice Quarterly. Her research has been supported with grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust of Nassau, and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s Jack Shand Research Award. She is currently writing a book that examines the factors shaping cross-national views about abortion.