Clifford Robe Shaw (1895 – 1957) was an American sociologist and criminologist. He was a major figure in the Chicago School of

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

during the 1930s and 1940s, and is considered to be one of the most influential figures in American

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

. His work on juvenile delinquency with Henry D. McKay, conducted in the late 1920s, played a pivotal role in moving the study of such delinquency toward the discipline of

, and away from

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

. Shaw and McKay's work spanned three general areas: studying geographic variation in rates of juvenile delinquency, the study of autobiographical works by delinquents, and the development of the Chicago Area Project, a delinquency prevention program in the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

area related to his Social Disorganization theory. The two studies published by Shaw and McKay in the 1930s and 1940s were still held in high regard among social scientists in the 1970s.

References

1895 births 1957 deaths American criminologists People from Henry County, Indiana Adrian College alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty {{US-sociologist-stub