Product Description

For undergraduate/graduate-level courses in General Criminology, Criminal Justice, White-Collar, Corporate Crime, and Social Problems. Assembled in honor of the preeminent criminologist and scholar, Gilbert Geis, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, this volume features original, interesting, and relevant essays written by internationally known contributors in such areas as white collar crime, punishment and social control, public policy issues, comparative criminology, law, victimology, and policing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #785232 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 418 pages

From the Inside Flap
Preface

This volume was assembled in honor of the preeminent criminologist and scholar, Gilbert Geis, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. Although this is a significant milestone in his life and certainly a cause for celebration, Gil deserves to be honored for many other reasons as well. First, and perhaps foremost, he is one of the most outstanding teachers and colleagues one could ever imagine. To those who know him, as well as to many who have simply met him, the combination of Gil's great warmth, caring, humor, intellect, breadth of interests, and energy mark him as one of the truly unique persons in the academic world today. As a prolific writer on a variety of topics related to law, crime, and criminal justice, his record of productivity over the past six decades, to use an analogy from his favorite sport, is similar in stature to the benchmarks set by Joe DiMaggio, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, and Mark McGwire. That is, it is extremely difficult to imagine anyone ever surpassing his academic publication record. At last count, he has written or edited 21 books, 192 articles, 104 book chapters, and 30 monographs and has edited a number of special issues of journals. The incredible number of Gil's scholarly publications is matched only by the fact that it is first-rate work, written in a rich and engaging manner that appeals to scholars, practitioners, and students alike.

Gil's academic career began in 1952 in the sociology department at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Before that, he served as a radioman in the U.S. Navy during the war years (1942-45), and as a reporter for the Times in Hartford, Connecticut (1946) and the Daily Home News in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1947-48). He earned his Ph.D. (1953) in sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison after receiving his M.S. (1949) at Brigham Young University and his B.A. (1947) at Colgate University. He also spent a year (1948) at the University of Stockholm in Sweden.

Gil left Oklahoma as an assistant professor in 1957, and took a position at California State University, Los Angeles, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1960 and then professor in 1963. During the 1969-70 school year, he was a visiting professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York, Albany. In 1971 he served as a visiting professor in the Program in Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. The program's founder, Arnold Binder, a mathematical psychologist, convinced him to join the faculty the following year. Gil remained at Irvine and became professor emeritus in 1987, with brief stints as a visiting fellow in the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University (1976-77), a visiting professor in the law school at the University of Sydney (1979), a distinguished visiting professor in the College of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University (1981), and a distinguished visiting professor in the John Jay School of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York (1996).

He has also been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career as a criminologist. Among them are outstanding professor awards at California State University (1968, 1971), the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award at UC, Irvine (1980), the Paul Tappan Award for outstanding contributions to criminology from the Western Society of Criminology (1980), the Edwin H. Sutherland Award for outstanding contributions to theory and research in criminology from the American Society of Criminology (1985), and the Donald R. Cressey Award for excellence in fraud detection and deterrence from the National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (1992). He has been a principal investigator or director of thirteen grants, including projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Ford Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Throughout his career, Gil has also been a model citizen of his profession, serving on numerous committees and boards. He has been an associate editor or editorial board member of sixteen academic journals, and has served as a member of advisory groups and executive committees for national and international organizations and publishers, including acting as advisor to the President's Committee on Narcotic and Drug Abuse (1963-64). In 1975 he was elected president of the American Society of Criminology. Since 1992 he has served as the president of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

For all of his academic success and commitment over the years, the capstone of Gil's career has to be his publication record. His writings have thus far spanned six decades and have covered an incredible range of topics, including education, race relations, Scandinavian issues, the death penalty, film censorship, prisons, biographies, probation, courts, legal rights, drugs, juvenile justice and delinquency, prostitution, crime and crime victims, policing, community corrections, rehabilitation, organized crime, prisoner rights, evaluations, rape, homicide, victimless crimes, ethical issues in law, violence, social problems, good samaritans, compensation, restitution, deterrence, witch trials, criminal justice issues, research methods, and, of course, white-collar crime. It is this last area for which he has become most well known, beginning with the publication of his classic piece, The Heavy Electrical Equipment Antitrust Case of 1961, in the book, Criminal Behavior Systems: A Typology, edited by Marshall Clinard and Richard Quinney. Ironically perhaps, this seminal work appeared as a chapter in a textbook rather than in a leading journal, and is responsible for resurrecting interest in the topic of white-collar crime, which was introduced by Edwin Sutherland decades earlier but by and large ignored by criminologists and others. The piece helped spawn a new generation of criminologists, whose primary research agenda was the study of white-collar and corporate crime. The importance of Gil's professional contribution in this regard cannot be overstated.

Since the writing of that pathbreaking piece, Gil's work in white-collar crime has been prolific and varied. It includes research on the deterrence of corporate crime, consumer fraud laws, victimization, the psychology of white-collar offenders, corporate violence, punishment issues, white-collar crime seriousness, medical fraud, legal and regulatory issues, fraud examination, organizational deviance, as well as a number of general pieces on white-collar crime.

While Gil's name is most frequently related to the study of white-collar crime, it is hard to find any major subject area in criminology, or for that matter any minor area of the discipline, in which he hasn't published. In an era of increasing emphasis on expertise confined to narrow fields of study, when, as some critics claim, scholars tend "to learn and know more and more; about less and less," Gil is a true exception. His credo is "to learn and know more and more, about more and more." Those who know him can attest to his keen interest, encyclopedic knowledge, analytical skills, and fascinating writing style dealing not only with criminological topics but a wide array of other subjects as well. Perhaps the most fitting characterization of his professional writings is that he is what is commonly called a "Renaissance man," although he would probably prefer the label, "Renaissance person."

Gil is not only one of the most prolific criminologists in the world today, but also a great teacher, mentor, and colleague. Anyone who has ever asked him to read and comment on a draft can testify to his promptness, meticulous editing (with loads of red ink), and helpful comments that invariably enhance the quality and clarity of the manuscript. He has helped many students and junior colleagues with his support, advice, encouragement, and active participation in the completion of their work. He has done so in spite of his own, always more than full, agenda, which is characterized by a meticulously kept list of works he has to complete. Those who have ever collaborated with Gil on any book, article, or other project find him to be well prepared, prompt (somewhat compulsive), and usually taking upon himself more than his fair share of the work. All these are done with a wonderful sense of humor amid entertaining conversations. His numerous co-authored publications are an excellent testimony to his ability and readiness to work constructively with others.

Gil can be a sharp critic as well. While he is urbane (almost always), he is not shy in his readiness to voice his opinions, even if they may ruffle some feathers. He is not an iconoclast for the sake of being one, but he is always ready to get into the fray and has more than once criticized some of the works of well-known social scientists.

As is suitable for a volume honoring Gilbert Geis, the pieces in this book cover a broad terrain, although many of them, naturally, are related to the topic of white-collar crime.

Blomberg and Cohen, in their introduction to the collection of essays hon

From the Back Cover

This volume was assembled in honor of the preeminent criminologist and scholar, Gilbert Geis, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. As one of the most prolific writers in criminology and the social sciences, having published over twenty books and over three hundred articles, chapters, and monographs over the past six decades, Gil's work has covered an incredibly broad range of topics. In this volume, his colleagues were invited to submit works that also cover a broad terrain. While many chapters are related to the topic of white-collar crime, for which Gil is perhaps best known, his friends have also honored him by providing original, interesting, and relevant pieces in such areas as punishment and social control, public policy issues, comparative criminology, law, victimology, and policing, that are important reading for scholars, students, and practitioners alike.

About the Author

HENRY N. PONTELL is professor and chair of the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California-Irvine. He has written extensively on the topics of deviance and social control, white-collar and corporate crime, punishment and deterrence, crime seriousness, jail overcrowding and litigation, criminal justice system capacity, medical fraud, and the role of crime in the savings and loan debacle. He is a past president and fellow of the Western Society of Criminology. His books include: A Capacity to Punish: The Ecology of Crime and Punishment; Social Deviance; Prescription for Profit: How Doctors Defraud Medicaid; Profit Without Honor: White Collar Crime and the Looting of America; and Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis. His current work includes research on international financial fraud, and new books on social deviance, and contemporary legal debates in America.

DAVID SHICHOR is professor emeritus of criminal justice, California State University-San Bernardino. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Southern California, and taught at the Tel Aviv University, Israel prior to his arrival at CSUSB. He has written, co-authored, and co-edited several books and published numerous articles and book chapters on various topics, including juvenile delinquency, victimization, white-collar crime, corrections, and privatization in criminal justice. He is currently working on several projects on privatization, restorative justice, fraud victimization, and the mental health of jail inmates.