Sutton received his B.A. in literature and sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1971; his M.A. in religion from the University of Southern California in 1973; and his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Davis, in 1981. He did postdoctoral work at the Organizations Research Training Program in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University from 1981 to 1983 and taught in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University from 1983 to 1988. Sutton's first book, Stubborn Children: Controlling Delinquency in the United States, 1640-1981, won the C. Wright Mills Award and was recognized for its integration of theory, quantitative analysis, and primary research. Reviewers described it as a corrective to aspects of Karl Marx, Michel Foucault, and Max Weber, and also as having described previously unexplored features of the history of American legal institutions. Sutton's textbook, Law/Society: Origins, Interactions, and Change, is also noted for the breadth of its theoretical scope and the integration of that theory with empirical examples. It filled a gap in the subfield of sociology of law when it was written, and it continues to be widely used in sociology of law and other law school classes. Sutton has been awarded multiple National Science Foundation grants and a Lilly Endowment grant. He currently teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His courses include Sociology of Crime and Delinquency; Sociology of Law; the Structure and Dynamics of Organizations; and Race, Crime, and Punishment.
Selected bibliography
Books
Sutton, John R.. Stubborn Children: Controlling Delinquency in the United States, 1640-1981. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Dobbin, Frank; Sutton, John R.; Meyer, John W. & Scott, W. Richard.. "Equal Opportunity Law and the Construction of Internal Labor Markets," American Journal of Sociology 99: 396-427.
Sutton, John R.; Dobbin, Frank; Meyer, John W. & Scott, W. Richard.. "The Legalization of the Workplace," American Journal of Sociology 99: 944-971.
Sutton, John R. & Dobbin, Frank.. American Sociological Review 61: 794-811.
Dobbin, Frank & Sutton, John R.. "The Strength of the Weak State: The Employment Rights Revolution and the Rise of Human Resource Management Divisions," American Journal of Sociology 104: 441-476.
