Dan A. Lewis

Professor of Human Development and Social Policy
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
Ph.D., University of California at Santa Cruz, 1980
dlewis@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Additional biographical information

Downloadable Research Papers

Dan A. Lewis’ research agenda provides an approach to studying social policy that meets the challenge of a profound transformation in social policy over the last 40 years. Gone are the days of new federal programs to solve national problems. The New Deal and the Great Society are seen by many as the source of our problems rather than solutions. Lewis’ work responds to these changes in the political climate.

In addition to numerous articles, Lewis has written or edited six books in these areas, including The State Mental Patient and Urban Life (1994), and Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis (1995). At the Institute for Policy Research he has directed major program projects on community reactions to crime, deinstitutionalization of state mental health patients and Chicago school decentralization. More recently, he conducted evaluations of the homelessness problem in the Chicago suburbs. Lewis also recently headed a large-scale university consortium that studied welfare reform efforts in Illinois for the state legislature and interested citizens.

Lewis serves on many nonprofit boards and civic committees. At Northwestern, he served as director of undergraduate education at the School of Education and Social Policy, and he currently directs the San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Field Study Programs.

Recent and Current Projects

The University Consortium on Welfare Reform (Illinois Families Study). Lewis recently completed this longitudinal study of 1,362 families moving from welfare to work in Illinois. Researchers interviewed the families once a year for four years about topics that include income and employment; education and job training; health and mental health; household and family composition; social support; child behavior problems; child academic indicators; economic hardships; parenting; substance abuse; domestic violence; and views about welfare reform. The study was commissioned by the state of Illinois, and the legislature received an annual report describing the progress of the reform and its impact on people’s lives.

The Transformation and Community Inclusion Project. Lewis and co-investigator Mary Pattillo directing a two-year ethnographic study of Chicago neighborhoods and suburban communities that will soon be home to public housing residents. The city of Chicago is razing 15,000 public housing units and moving residents into Chicago and suburban communities. The study will report on how the community residents, leaders and organizations are planning and readying themselves for the new public housing residents, their attitudes toward the new arrivals, and the strategies that are both effective and ineffective in increasing awareness and sensitivity to the issues of affordable and public housing.

School Decentralization and State Politics. Building on earlier work on Chicago's efforts to decentralize its school system, Lewis contrasted similar efforts in five U.S. cities. The results appeared in the book Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis: A Study of School Decentralization (1995). Lewis found that attempts to reform school systems are based on an inadequate model of how children learn and of problems with the school system. A chapter and working paper (with co-author Shadd Maruna), "Educational Politics in the American States," provide an overview of the impact of state government on K-12 education, with some attention to higher education.

Nursing Homes and Older Persons with Chronic Mental Illness. This study explored the policies that have produced a growing population of mentally ill in nursing homes and the impact of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 that addresses this problem. Researchers assessed how nursing home reform was shaped by policymakers and case managers following the Act. A final report demonstrated how policy is implemented at the caregiving level and described the impacts of these policies on clients, service providers and nursing homes.

Deinstitutionalization of Mental Health Patients. In their 1994 book, The State Mental Patient and Urban Life: Moving In and Out of the Institution, Lewis and Arthur J. Lurigio explored the reasons for recidivism among state mental health patients. The study found a state mental health system with a disturbing racial bias against African-Americans, a group increasing in state institutions. Through portrayals of Chicago-area state hospital patients, the authors examined the unique circumstances that surround admission to state hospitals and the difficulty of readjusting to life outside. Earlier findings from this long-term project appeared in Worlds of the Mentally Ill (Lewis et al., 1991).

Selected Publications

Chapters and Articles

Lewis, D. A., with B. J. Lee and L. Altenbernd. 2006. Depression and welfare reform: From barriers to inclusion.  Journal of Community Psychology 34(4): 415-33.

Lewis, D. A. 2005. New Deal to no deal: The movement toward less government is shifting social responsibility to the states. Illinois Issues.

Lewis, D. A., with B. Nelson. 2004. Suburban homelessness. In Encyclopedia of Homeless, Sage Publications/Berkshire, ed. D. Levinson. Great Barrington, Mass.: Reference Works.

Lewis, D. A., with K. S. Slack and B. J. Lee. 2004. Are welfare sanctions working as intended? Social Science Review. 78(3): 370-403.

Lewis, D. A., with I. Carvalho. 2003. Beyond community: Reactions to crime among inner-city residents. Criminology 41(3): 779-812.

Lewis, D. A. 1981. Reactions to crime. Sage Criminal Justice System Annuals 16. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Illinois Families Study Reports

Lewis, Dan A., et al. 2003. Preserving the gains, Rethinking the losses: Welfare in Illinois five years after reform.

Lewis, Dan A., et al. 2002. Welfare Reform in Illinois: Is the moderate approach working?

Lewis, Dan A., et al. 2000. Work, Welfare, and Well-Being: An independent look at welfare reform in Illinois.

Books

Lewis, Dan A., with K. Nakagawa. 1995. Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis: A Study of School Decentralization. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Lewis, Dan A., with Arthur J. Lurigio, et al. 1994. The State Mental Patient and Urban Life: Moving In and Out of the Institution. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Lewis, Dan A, et al. 1991. The Worlds of the Mentally Ill. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Lewis, Dan A., with J. Grant and D. Rosenbaum. 1988. The Social Construction of Reform: Crime Prevention and Community Organizations. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Lewis, Dan A., with Greta Salem. 1986. Fear of Crime: Incivility and the Production of a Social Problem. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.