CJ Appleton: Redemptive Journey Inspires Transformative Research

“13 years ago, at 27 years old, living under a bridge, is where my current academic journey began.”

CJ Appleton had no idea where life would take him. As a former D1 athlete, unexpected personal challenges derailed CJ’s life, resulting in him being homeless on the streets of Portland, Oregon. 

Today, he proudly walks through Duke’s gothic arches as an assistant professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy, eager to bridge the gap between criminology scholarship and US policy       

“I feel an incredible sense of pride, humility, gratitude, and accomplishment knowing that I am a professor at Duke University. In this way, Duke is a destination point (an acknowledgment of the work I have done professionally and personally over the past 13 years). But it is also a starting point to a future full of promise and possibilities.”

From Athlete to Academic

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Appleton’s journey has been anything but linear. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, with his mother and older sister. Sports dominated his early years. He poured himself into football and basketball, aiming for a professional career. At 18, he enrolled at Oregon State University to pursue football. But, as he puts it, “life challenges and immaturity” led him to drop out after just one year.

Losing his sports career meant losing the identity he had built around it. “I found it difficult to invest in anything the way I did sports,” he says. “Over time, life became very difficult for me.” Without direction, he eventually retreated into homelessness, where the weight of lost potential and squandered talent felt almost inescapable.

And yet, it was in that lowest moment that Appleton’s new chapter began. “I connected with a mentor and was finally ready to take steps toward dealing with my challenges,” he says. In 2013, he returned to school at Portland Community College (PCC), determined to commit himself fully. In his first term back, he earned his first-ever 4.0 GPA.

“That was a turning point,” Appleton recalls. “I realized I could find a similar pride and fulfillment in my education as I did on the field.” He also returned to the basketball court, captaining the PCC team to its first and only championship in school history.

From there, Appleton transferred to Lewis & Clark College, where he discovered sociology and began conducting qualitative research projects.

Finding a Calling in Criminal Justice Research

Appleton earned his master’s degree in sociology from Portland State University, where he began studying criminal justice policy, particularly the relationship between probation officers and clients. His master’s thesis examined how both groups seek recognition beyond their official labels (“officer” and “probationer”) as the foundation of trust and progress.

That work connected him with Dr. Faye Taxman, a leading scholar in probation and parole, and brought him to George Mason University to pursue his Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society.

For the past six years, Appleton has been deeply involved in translational research (figuring out how to better connect policy and practice in criminal justice systems). His focus is on desistance, the process of ending a criminal career. “Desistance results from a dynamic relationship between agency and structure,” he explains. “Because of this, my work focuses on both person-centered and systems approaches.”

His person-centered research takes a life-course view, looking at how identity, self-concept, and life experiences shape pathways in and out of crime. His dissertation involved 84 life history interviews, each lasting 90 minutes to two hours, with participants representing different racial, gender, and justice backgrounds.

The narratives revealed the powerful role of childhood trauma in shaping criminal trajectories. “Trauma disrupts psychosocial development, leading to an identity crisis. For many, resolving that crisis meant bonding with delinquent peers, drug use, risky behavior, and criminality.”

One of his key findings: participants who could integrate their trauma into a coherent, redemptive life story were more likely to sustain desistance. “Some did this through participation in structured programs. Others with less access to programming had to become entrepreneurs of their own healing process,” he explains. “But for those unable to integrate their trauma, their stories were marked with low self-worth and a pessimistic worldview.”

Transforming Systems

Appleton’s systems-focused research looks at community supervision (probation and parole), which affects nearly 4 million people in the U.S. He has been part of the first effort to create community corrections practice guidelines, aimed at reducing overuse of supervision conditions that can trap people in the system for minor technical violations.

“Nearly 25% of new state prison entries each year are for technical violations,” Appleton notes. “We have to rethink what conditions are truly necessary, and how to align supervision with real rehabilitation.”

His team is currently running a randomized control trial in Massachusetts to test whether teaching departments how to use a quality improvement model called the Plan-Do-Study-Act to identify local problems and collaborative solutions can improve outcomes. He is also interested in how plea-bargaining decisions result in a misalignment of supervision conditions with client needs, and in building life-course research on probation officers themselves (exploring how their personal histories influence their decisions).

A Teacher, Mentor, and Coach

When Appleton talks about joining Sanford, his excitement is palpable. “The thing I am most excited about is the interdisciplinary nature of the department,” he says. “Policy work brings together people from all over the academic community. Sanford is a perfect example (economists, psychologists, sociologists, criminologists). I can’t wait to collaborate and learn from them all.”

He is equally eager to work with students. “I’ve heard such amazing things about Duke students,” he says. “I can’t wait to get in the classroom to tackle complex topics like criminal justice policy and help them imagine a new pathway into the future.”

Appleton’s classroom style draws on his sports background (blending discipline, encouragement, and teamwork). “I believe in celebrating the wins, no matter how small,” he says. “The big wins, like publishing a paper, can take months. But small wins happen daily.”

Outside academia, Appleton remains committed to community work. He mentors individuals recovering from addiction, people experiencing homelessness, and those returning from incarceration. He also coaches youth sports, believing mentorship can prevent young people from making life-altering mistakes. “My academic journey has been full of collaboration,” he says. “I think the same principle applies in life (we learn from each other, and we find better solutions together).”

Research brings hope to help others

For Appleton, research is not just an academic exercise. It is about transformative change and hope for better policies as a result. 

"I began my academic journey believing ideas were the major barrier to change in the criminal justice system. I have since come to believe that improving how we translate research into policy and then policy into practice in imperfect and dynamic real-world contexts is what is most important."

"I hope that my work contributes to the advancement of a more systematic approach to both reentry service provision and probation and parole practice. In doing so, I aim to improve the working conditions for those who work for the system and the experiences and outcomes for those caught in the system."

From living under a bridge to building bridges between policy and practice, CJ Appleton’s story is one of resilience, purpose, and possibility. And as he begins his career at Duke, he is bringing that same energy (equal parts warmth and precision) to the work of making systems more just and humane.