Contact Information
3080 Lincoln Hall
Urbana, IL 61801
M/C 454
Research Interests
My research is focused on the sociolegal and criminological study of Puerto Rico and its legal and political relationship with the US. I am particularly interested in studying how the Puerto Rican case provides a better understanding of the connections between colonialism, law, emergency powers, crises, and corruption, and its social, criminological, economic and political consequences. I am also interested in the study of processes of criminalization of social, political and environmental movements, and contemporary manifestations of corporate crimes and state crimes. My book, Crisis by Design: Emergency Powers and Colonial Legality in Puerto Rico, analyzes the role of law, emergency powers, and anticorruption social movements in the current Puerto Rican multilayered crisis. My book asks how Puerto Ricans access a just recovery amid simultaneous crises and the continuous use and renewal of state of emergency declarations in response to these crises. In this project, I employ qualitative methodologies, such as ethnography, case studies, historical research, critical discourse analysis and policy analysis. My other research interest are:
Sociology of Law
Crime, Law and Deviance
Law and Society
Critical Criminology
Politica Sociology
Colonialism
Law and Political Economy
Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Caribbean
Latina/o Sociology
Education
Ph.D. University of the Basque Country (2015)
Ph.D. University of Coimbra (2014)
M.A. International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati. University of the Basque Country (2009)
B.A. University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (2007)
Courses Taught
Soc 275 Criminology
Soc 310 Sociology of deviance
Soc 378 Sociology of Law
Soc 479 Law and Society
Soc 596/Law792 Law and Society
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Sociology
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Assistant Professor, Latina/Latino Studies
Assistant Professor, College of Law
Assistant Professor, Center for Global Studies
Assistant Professor, Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
Assistant Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Recent Publications
Atiles, J. (2025). Economic Sanctions as State Crime: Empire, Law, and the US's Economic Warfare in Latin America. British Journal of Criminology, Article azaf003. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaf003
Atiles, J., & Whyte, D. (2025). Fossil Capital in the Caribbean: The Toxic Role of “Regulatory Havens” in Climate Change. Regulation and Governance, 19(2), 469-481. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.70001
Atiles, J., & Whyte, D. (2025). Fossil Capital’s Regulatory Havens in the Caribbean. Law and Political Economy Blog . https://lpeproject.org/blog/fossil-capitals-regulatory-havens-in-the-carribean/
Atiles, J. (2025). Funding the colonial tax haven: unpacking the role of the paycheck protection program in Puerto Rico’s state-corporate crimes. Crime, Law and Social Change, 83(1), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-024-10192-4
Atiles, J. (2025). Islands of Sovereignty: Haitian Migration and the Borders of Empire. By Jeffrey Kahn. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2019. Law & Society Review. https://doi.org/10.1017/lsr.2024.62