Ruth Delois Peterson is 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 ...

known for her work on racial and ethnic inequality and crime. She earned her PhD in sociology from

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 1983. Peterson is emerita professor of sociology at the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

, former director of the Criminal Justice Research Center (1999–2011), and former president of the

American Society of Criminology The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization based on the campus of Ohio State University whose members focus on the study of crime and delinquency. It aims to grow and disseminate scholarly research, with members wo ...

(2016). She is the namesake of the American Society of Criminology's Ruth D. Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Peterson is the co-organizer of the Racial Democracy, Crime, and Justice Network's Crime and Justice program, an annual Summer Research Institute to support research in criminal justice and crime by underrepresented groups.

References

Living people University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Ohio State University faculty American women sociologists American criminologists Presidents of the American Society of Criminology American women criminologists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women {{US-sociologist-stub