Albert John Reiss Jr. (December 9, 1922 – April 27, 2006) was an American sociologist and criminologist.

Career

He served as the William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

from 1970 until his retirement in 1993. He is recognized for his contributions to social control theory, as well as for his research on police violence. He has been credited with coining the term " proactive" while researching violent incidents between police and private citizens as a research director for

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

's President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. This research led Reiss to conclude that there was a greater risk of violence in reactive police encounters than in proactive ones, prompting innovation in policing practices in many American

police department The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...

s. Reiss served as president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 1968–69. In 1983, he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. He was also a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. He was elected president of the American Society of Criminology in 1984, and of the International Society of Criminology in 1990, making him the first person to serve as president of both organizations. In 1996, the

American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...

named its Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Crime, Law and Deviance after him.

References

1922 births 2006 deaths American criminologists People from Sheboygan County, Wisconsin Marquette University alumni University of Chicago alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the American Society of Criminology University of Iowa faculty University of Michigan faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Vanderbilt University faculty Yale University faculty {{Criminologist-stub