Assistant Professor, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
Email: ap.zorro@utoronto.ca

azorromedina.com

Ángela Zorro Medina is a sociolegal scholar who focuses on how the criminal justice system produces and reproduces racial and social inequality in Latin America and the United States. For the Latin American case, her work studies the consequences of the Latin American criminal procedure revolution on crime rates, incarceration rates, and the administration of justice in the region. As an expert on adversarial procedural reform in Latin America, she has advised the Colombian Ministry of Justice, Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammmenarbeit (GIZ), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and the Inter-American Bank of Development and Colombian Congress Representatives in assessing and designing economic development, criminal justice, and penitentiary public policies. 

Her work in the U.S. examines how institutional arraignments can exacerbate racial and social inequality through contact with the criminal justice system. As part of her U.S. research agenda, Zorro Medina is affiliated with the University of Chicago Justice Project, a group of scholars that seek to bring together academia and U.S. public policy by blending social sciences with multi-city projects on neighborhood violence, redistricting, and policing. Àngela is firmly committed to transparent and replicable social sciences as part of the Justice Project, making all codebooks, data, and data agreements public.

Scholarly Papers at SSRN
Education
PhD (Sociology), University of Chicago (2025)
JSD, Yale Law School (2021)
MA (Sociology), University of Chicago (2020)
LLM, Yale Law School (2015)
BA (Economics), Universidad de los Andes (2013)
LLB, Universidad de los Andes (2013)
Academic appointments
Assistant Professor, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
Researcher, Justice Project, University of Chicago
Awards and distinctions
Horowitz Foundation Award
Institute of Humane Studies Fellow
Neubauer Family Distinguished Fellow (University of Chicago)
W. Allison Davis Research Award (University of Chicago)
Fox Fellow (Yale University-Sciences Po Paris)
Kauffman Fellow in Law and Economics, John M. Olin Center (Yale Law School)
Selected publications

Peer Review Publications:

Book Publications:

    • Zorro Medina, A., Acosta, C., and Hern ́andez, N., 2016. ”An Economic Approach of the Pre-Trial Detention” (”Un enfoque economico a la detencion preventiva”). In Lozano, E. (coord), ”Theory and Empirical Economic Analysis of the Colombia Law” (”Teorıa y puesta en practica del analisis economico del derecho en Colombia”). Bogot ́a, Colombia: Uniandes
    • Zorro Medina, A., 2021. ”The Costs of Imprisonment” (“Los costos del encarcelamiento”). In Ariza, L. and Iturralde, M. (coord.) ”The Prison in Colombia: Challenges and Perspectives” (“La prision en Colombia: desafıos y perspectivas”). Bogota, Colombia: Uniandes.
    • Zorro Medina, A. 2023 ”An Experimental Evaluation of Criminal Settlements in Colombia” (”Una evaluacion experimental de los acuerdos penales en Colombia”). In Langer, M. and Sozzo, M.
    • Zorro Medina, A., Forthcoming ”John Pfaff and The Theories of Prison Growth” (”John Pfaff y las teor ́ıas sobre el crecimiento de la poblaci ́on reclusa”). In Ariza, L. and Tamayo, F. (coord.) “Contemporary Thinking and Research on Crime and Punishment” (”Pensamiento e investigacion contemporanea sobre el crimen y el castigo”). Bogota, Colombia: Uniandes.

Non-Academic Publications:

    • Salas, L., and Zorro Medina, A. 2013. ”Land Reforms in Colombia: The Peasant Struggle in the Frame of Forced Displacement”. El Otro Derecho, No. 44 p. 199-218.
    • Ariza, L., Iturralde, M., Torres, N., Urrutia, J., and Zorro Medina, A. 2017 ”Baseline of Human Rights in Prisons in Colombia”
    • Zorro Medina, A. 2020. ”Releases from Prison during COVID” (Excarcelaciones en tiempos del COVID-19). El Espectador
    • Vargas, R., Loftus, C., Zorro Medina, A., and Misra, K. 2022. ”Chicago Police Recover Less than 20% of Carjacked Vehicles”. UChicago Justice Project Report.
Curriculum Vitae
Research areas
Comparative Law
Criminal Law 
Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Economic Analysis of Law

Publications

Scholarly Papers at SSRN