Albert J. Reiss

Albert John Reiss, Jr. (December 9, 1922 – April 27, 2006) was an American sociologist and criminologist.  He served as the William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology at Yale University from 1970 until his retirement in 1993.  He is recognized for his contributions to social control theory, as well as for his research on police violence.  He has been credited with coining the term "proactive" while researching violent incidents between police and private citizens as a research director for Lyndon B. Johnson's President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice.  This research led Reiss to conclude that there was a greater risk of violence in reactive police encounters than in proactive ones, prompting the widespread adoption of proactive policing in many American police departments.  

Reiss served as president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 1968–69.  In 1983, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He was also a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.  He was elected president of the American Society of Criminology in 1984, and of the International Society of Criminology in 1990, making him the first person to serve as president of both organizations.  In 1996, the American Sociological Association named its Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Crime, Law and Deviance after him. 

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Category:1922 births
Category:2006 deaths
Category:American criminologists
Category:American sociologists
Category:People from Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Category:Marquette University alumni
Category:University of Chicago alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Category:Presidents of the American Society of Criminology
Category:University of Iowa faculty
Category:University of Michigan faculty
Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Category:Vanderbilt University faculty
Category:Yale University faculty