Gresham M'Cready Sykes (May 26, 1922 – October 29, 2010) was an American sociologist and

criminologist 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 ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

and a Ph.D. at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. He taught at Princeton, Dartmouth, and Northwestern prior to becoming

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 ...

professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. Sykes's study of New Jersey State Prison has been described as a pioneering look at the issues faced by guards, as well as the pains of imprisonment encountered by inmates. His most famous work is The Society of Captives, which is widely considered one of the first works in the genre of prison sociology. He coauthored Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency with

David Matza David Matza (May 1, 1930 – March 14, 2018) was an American sociologist who taught at University of California, Berkeley from 1961. Life and work Born in New York, he received his PhD from Princeton University in 1959. His research fields inclu ...

, published in the

American Sociological Review The ''American Sociological Review'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of sociology. It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the American Sociological Association. It was established in 1936. It is along ...

in December 1957.

References

1922 births 2010 deaths American sociologists Princeton University alumni Northwestern University alumni Princeton University faculty Dartmouth College faculty University of Virginia faculty {{US-sociologist-stub