Prior to joining Loyola in 2007, he was the Director of Research for Sentencing and Corrections at the Vera Institute of Justice. His research explores the innovation and diffusion of sentencing and corrections policies in the United States, the macro-level intersection between sentencing policies and imprisonment, and the micro-level impact of sentencing policies on the use of discretion. He is currently the principal investigator on a National Institute of Justice funded project examining the decision-making processes of prosecutors and the impact of legal and extra-legal factors on prosecutorial outcomes.