Dorothy Roberts, the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology, the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, and a professor of Africana studies, with appointments in the School of Arts and Sciences and Penn Carey Law, has been honored by the American Sociological Association (ASA) for her book Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. The ASA cited the “moral urgency and agenda-setting impact of this exceptional book” in announcing the award.

An acclaimed scholar of race, gender, and the law, Professor Roberts catalogues the consequences of racial inequities for women, children, families, and communities, and counters scientific tenets about racial identity. Her work in law and public policy focuses on urgent social justice issues in policing, family regulation, science, medicine, and bioethics. Professor Roberts is the founding director of the groundbreaking Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society and is the author of several other books and more than 100 scholarly articles and book chapters, as well as a co-editor of six books on such topics as constitutional law and women and the law.

Founded in 1905, the ASA is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. These annual awards are the highest honors the ASA confers.