Last updated on:
8/29/2008 |
Author: ProCon.org
Donald R. Cressey, PhD Biography
- Title:
- Late Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara
- Position:
- Not Clearly Pro or Con to the question "Should the Death Penalty Be Allowed?"
- Reasoning:
-
“[The] cost is not inherent in the penalty, but imposed by judges. It is not cheaper to keep a criminal confined, because most of the time he will appeal just as much causing as many costs as a convict under death sentence. Being alive and having nothing better to do, he will spend his time in prison conceiving of ever-new habeas corpus petitions, which being unlimited, in effect cannot be rejected as res judicata. The cost is higher.”
Cowritten with Edwin Sutherland, Criminology – Fifth Edition, 1974
- Theoretical Expertise Ranking:
-
Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, or equivalent advanced degrees in fields relevant to death penalty issues. Also top-level government officials (such as foreign leaders, US presidents, Founding Fathers, Supreme Court Justices, members of legislative bodies, cabinet members, military leaders, etc.) with positions relevant to death penalty issues. - Involvement and Affiliations:
-
- Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1967-1987
- Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge, 1961-1962 and 1971
- Consultant, Organized Crime, President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 1966-1967
- Dean of the College of Letters and Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1962-1967
- Professor, Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1959-1962
- Acting Dean of Social Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 1960-1961
- Chairman, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1958-1961
- Lecturer, Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1949-1959
- Education:
-
- PhD, Criminology, Indiana University
- Other:
-
- Died in 1987
- Quoted in: