   walter garrison runciman, 3rd viscount runciman of doxford, cbe, fba (born 10 november 1934), usually known informally as garry runciman, is a leading british historical sociologist. ==background== runciman is the son of leslie runciman, 2nd viscount runciman of doxford, by his second wife katherine schuyler garrison. british historian sir steven runciman was his uncle.  ==career== runciman has been a senior research fellow at trinity college, cambridge since 1971, researching in the field of comparative and historical sociology. he is a cambridge apostle. his principal research interest is the application of neo-darwinian evolutionary theory to cultural and social selection.bio at trinity college website, trin.cam.ac.uk; accessed 12 july 2014. he holds honorary degrees from king's college london and the universities of edinburgh, oxford, and york. he is also an honorary foreign member of the american academy of arts and sciences and an honorary bencher of inner temple. he was elected to the british academy in 1975 and served as its president from 2001 to 2005.british academy fellows archive accessed 30 september 2008 ==royal commission on criminal justice== runciman chaired the british government's royal commission on criminal justice which continued sir john may's inquiry into the convictions of the maguire seven and encompassed further miscarriages of justice. as a result the criminal appeal act 1995 established the criminal cases review commission as an executive non-departmental public body.ccrc website, ccrc.gov.uk; accessed 12 july 2014. ==publications== runciman's first major publication was relative deprivation and social justice: a study of attitudes to social inequality in twentieth-century britain (routledge, 1966), reprinted by gregg revivals in 1993. since then, he has published a critique of max weberâs philosophy of social science (cambridge university press, 1972), a treatise on social theory (cambridge university press, vol. 1 1983, vol. 2 1989, vol. 3 1997), and the social animal (harpercollins, 1998). in 2004, he edited and contributed to a british academy occasional paper hutton and butler: lifting the lid on the workings of power, which deals with the events surrounding britain's participation in the invasion of iraq and the way in which it was presented to the british public.  ==family== runciman is married to dame ruth runciman. their son, 
1934_births British_academics British_sociologists Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire Fellows_of_Trinity_College,_Cambridge Fellows_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences Fellows_of_the_British_Academy Hereditary_peers_removed_from_the_House_of_Lords_under_the_Act_1999 Living_people Presidents_of_the_British_Academy Runciman_family Viscounts_in_the_Peerage_of_the_United_Kingdom