Stephanie Bonnes, Ph.D.

Stephanie Bonnes headshot
Assistant Professor

Criminal Justice Department
Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences
Education

Ph.D. Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2018
M.A. Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, 2010
B.A. Sociology and History, Gettysburg College, 2008

About Stephanie

Stephanie Bonnes is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven. Her research is qualitative and broadly focuses on gender the intersections of victimization, identity, inequality, violence, and organizations. Her book Hardship Duty: Women’s Experiences with Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, and Discrimination in the U.S. Military, focuses on the puzzle of how sexual abuse remains highly prevalent in an organization that has dynamic policies, prevention strategies, and evolving education programs designed to combat sexual violence. Drawing primarily on in-depth interviews with fifty servicewomen, Hardship Duty uncovers how masculinity and misogyny are entangled in the organization’s structure, policies, values, physical spaces, and culture in ways that create sexual abuse vulnerability.

Her scholarship on military harassment and sexual violence has won awards from the Sociologists for Women in Society, the Sex and Gender Section and the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section at the American Sociological Association, as well as the Division of Feminist Criminology and the Division of Victimology at the American Society of Criminology. Her work has been published in American Sociological Review, Gender & Society, Feminist Criminology, and Violence Against Women as well as media outlets such as the Washington Post.

Publications

Book

Bonnes, Stephanie. Hardship Duty: Women’s Experiences with Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, and Discrimination in the U.S. Military. (In Press with Oxford University Press)

Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Bonnes, Stephanie and Samantha Tosto. Forthcoming. “Prosecuting Military Sexual Assault: The Entanglement of Military Discourse and Victim Stereotypes in Prosecutor Case Strategies.” Feminist Criminology.

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2022. “Femininity Anchors: Heterosexual relationships and pregnancy as sites of harassment for U.S. Service Women." American Sociological Review vol. 87, no. 4: 618-643.

Bonnes, Stephanie and Jeffrey Palmer. (2021). “The U.S. Marine Corps’ Response to Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: An Analysis of The Family Advocacy Program and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program.” Armed Forces & Society vol. 48, no. 3: 609-633.

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2021. “An Intersectional Approach to Military Sexual Violence.” Sociology Compass vol 15, no 12.

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2020. “Service-women’s responses to Sexual Harassment: The Importance of Identity Work and Masculinity in a Gendered Organization” Violence Against Women vol. 26, no. 12-13: 1656-1680.

Bonnes, Stephanie. (2017). “The Bureaucratic Harassment of U.S. Servicewomen.” Gender & Society vol. 31, no. 6: 804-829.

Bonnes, Stephanie and Janet Jacobs. 2017. “Gendered Representations of Apartheid: The Women’s Jail Museum at Constitution Hill.” Museum & Society vol. 15, no. 2: 153-170.

Selected Media Commentaries

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2020. “What Can Stop Sexual Harassment in the U.S. military?” The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/what-can-stop-sexual-harassment-us-military

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2018. "How Bureaucracy can Help Maintain Sexism and Inequality in the U.S. Military." London School of Economics American Politics and Policy Blog. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2018/09/25/how-bureaucracy-can-help-maintain-sexism-and-inequality-in-the-us-military/

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2017. "The Bureaucratic Harassment of U.S. Servicewomen" Gender & Society Blog: https://gendersociety.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/the-bureaucratic-harassment-of-u-s-servicewomen/

Bonnes, Stephanie. 2017. "Sexual Harassment, Bureaucracy, and Discretionary Power in the U.S. Military." Work in Progress Blog: https://workinprogress.oowsection.org/2017/12/13/sexual-harassment-bureaucracy-and-discretionary-power-in-the-us-military/

Research Interestes

Violence Against Women, Sexual Abuse, Workplace Harassment, Victimology, Crime and Organizations, Intersectionality, Racial and Gender Inequality, Race, Gender, and Crime

In the Media

In the Media

WICC 600: Connecticut Today with Paul Pacelli

Stephanie Bonnes, associate professor of criminal justice, talks about the investigation into the sexual harassment charges against Andrew Cuomo and how he retaliated against his victims and offers advice for those this happened to or witnessed.