NCJ Number
93550
Date Published
1983
Length
284 pages
Annotation
This oral history presents interviews with nine of the founders of modern criminology. The interviews highlight key mentors and institutions, career patterns, and surprising coincidences that often led to lasting contributions to the field.
Abstract
Criminologists interviewed include Hans. W. Mattick, Leslie T. Wilkins, Solomon Kobrin, and Daniel Glaser. Edwin M. Lemert, Donald R. Cressey, Thorsten Sellin, Albert K. Cohen, and Lloyd E. Ohlin were also subjects. The criminologists express concern for the future of criminology and criminal justice. Three general issues for the 1980's are pointed out: the theoretical crisis within the field; the policy crisis within criminal justice; and problems of funding research, with particular emphasis on the legacy of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. More than half of the subjects see criminological theory in a state of disarray. Lemert argues that the sociology of deviance is in a confused state without any dominant perspective. Cressey says that most criminologists do not understand the normative conflict-differential association perspective, which is needed as a foundation in criminology. Cohen feels that criminology is moving away from explaining conduct toward explaining how control systems operate. He argues that there has been no resolution of the paradigms existing in the field (the competing theories of Cohen, Miller, Cloward and Ohlin, Matza, and Hirschi). Kobrin notes that the direction of criminal justice in relation to public policy is very unclear. Each interview includes a brief biography of the subject and notes. About 80 references and an index are supplied. Appendixes provide a methodological postscript and interviews with Anthony Sorrentino, Joseph Puntil, and Yale Levin, who worked with Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago.