Alexandra Natapoff

Scholar and Criminal Justice Expert

Alexandra Natapoff is an award-winning legal scholar and criminal justice expert. She writes about criminal courts, public defense, plea bargaining, wrongful convictions, and race and inequality in the criminal system. Her book "Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal" (Basic Books) reveals the powerful influence that misdemeanors exert over the U.S. criminal system. Her book "Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice" (NYU Press), won the ABA Silver Gavel Award Honorable Mention for Books: her original work on criminal informants has made her an international expert. Professor Natapoff is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the American Law Institute, and a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law School. She has testified before Congress and numerous state legislative bodies; she has helped draft state and federal legislation; her work appears frequently in judicial opinions as well as the national media. Prior to joining the academy, she served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Baltimore, Maryland.