Jesse Self
Visiting Assistant Professor of Criminology
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Jesse Self is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Criminology at North Central College. As a critical criminologist, his teaching and research draw from various fields in the social sciences, including sociology, criminology, social work, and socio-legal studies. His work often focuses on parallels in how individuals and family members experience criminalization and punishment across the carceral and immigration systems.
Dr. Self joined North Central College in 2025 after earning his PhD from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. His dissertation, Beyond Bars: Examining the Hidden Consequences of Carceral Expansion into Family Homes, examines how carceral supervision (parole, probation, and electronic home monitoring) creates various forms of violence against supervised individuals and their co-residing family members. He teaches courses in the fields of criminology, sociology, and law and society. In the classroom, Dr. Self encourages students to explore how shared experiences of criminalization and punishment reveal broader patterns of power, inequality, and social control.
Dr. Self enjoys mentoring students on independent research topics or offering guidance when they need help refining their ideas. When not at North Central College, he’s often reading or writing in a coffeeshop, training at the gym, or at home in Chicago with his wife and their three cats.