Calling it a “major honor,” Professor Frank Zimring, the William G. Simon Professor of Law and Wolfen Distinguished Scholar, has been declared the 2007 winner of the American Society of Criminology’s Edwin H. Sutherland Award.
Edwin H. Sutherland (1883-1950) is considered to be one of the most influential criminologists of the twentieth century. He was a sociologist and is best known for defining differential association—a theory of crime and delinquency that explains how deviants learn the motivations and the technical knowledge for criminal activity.
Established in 1960, the Sutherland Award recognizes outstanding contributions to theory or research in criminology on the etiology of criminal and deviant behavior, the criminal justice system, corrections, law, or justice.
The distinguished contribution may be based on a single outstanding book or work, on a series of theoretical or research contributions, or on the accumulated contributions by a senior scholar. According to Zimring, it was the collected body of his work that was recognized.