Jody David Armour
Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law
USC Gould School of Law
Jody David Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. A widely published scholar and popular lecturer, he studies the intersection of race, law, morality, psychology, politics, ordinary language philosophy, and the performing arts. His latest book, Ngga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law, was named a Best Book of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews and examines America’s criminal justice system through deeply interdisciplinary lenses.
His latest work on penal abolition, “Radical Imagination,” was published in Criminal Law and Philosophy in 2025. His free speech article, “Law, Language, and Politics,” was published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law in 2020. Armour is a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of the Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities & Culture. He also served on the Board of Directors of LEAP (Law Enforcement Action Partnership), an international 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization composed of police officers, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials, and other law enforcement professionals advocating for criminal justice reform.