William J. Chambliss

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William J. Chambliss

Professor of Sociology


The Department of Sociology and the entire GW community have lost a dear friend and colleague. Bill Chambliss, Professor of Sociology at GW for over 25 years, died on February 22, 2014. Click here for more about Bill's legacy from department chair, Greg Squires. Related articles can be found on the websites for the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the Law & Society Association.

Note: To honor Bill's legacy we have created a fund that will help us provide graduate student packages, financial aid, and other support for our most deserving students. More information can be found here. And if you would like to make a gift in honor of Bill, please visit go.gwu.edu/billchambliss.


In recent years, Professor Chambliss received numerous awards for his research and teaching including the prestigious Edwin H. Sutherland Award from the American Society of Criminology, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association, the Bruce Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the PASS Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association. In 1999 Professor Chambliss was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Guelph, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been recognized as an outstanding teacher by being inducted into the George Washington University Chapter of Golden Key International Honour Society and the National Honor Society for Outstanding Teachers. In the spring of 2006, Prof. Chambliss participated in the Oxford Roundtable on Criminal Justice at Oxford University, England. In March 2008 Professor Chambliss delivered the Beto Chair Lecture in Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. In May 2008, Professor Chambliss organized a workshop on state crime at the Onati International Institute for the Study of Law and Society in Onati, Spain which included papers by an international group of scholars from Europe, New Zealand, Asia, and America. He also presented two papers at the workshop: "International Drug Policy and State Crime" and "Prosecutorial Misconduct as State Crime" (with J. Jeffrey Chambliss).


Books

2013. Discover Sociology (with Daina Eglitis). Sage.    

2012. Criminology: Connecting Theory, Research, and Practice. (with Aida Hass) McGraw-Hill.

2011. Key Issues in Crime and Punishment (ed. five volumes). Sage.

2010. State Crime in the Global Age (ed) (with Raymond Michalowski and Ronald Kramer). Willan.

2001. Power, Politics, and Crime. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

1997. Sociology, 2nd Edition (with Richard Appelbaum). NY: Longman.

1994. Making Law: The Law, State and Structural Contradictions (co-edited with Marjorie Zatz). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

1990. Criminal Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice: A Casebook (with Tom Courtless). Menlo Park, CA.

1988. Exploring Criminology. NY: Macmillan.

1984. Criminal Law in Action, 2nd Edition (editor). NY: John Wiley.

1982. Law, Order and Power (with Robert Seidman). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

1981. Organizing Crime (with Alan Block). NY: Elsevier.

1978. On the Take. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

1976. Whose Law? What Order? (co-edited with Milton Mankoff). NY: John Wiley.

1975. Sociology: The Discipline and its Direction (with Thomas E. Ryther). NY: McGraw-Hill.

1975. Criminal Law in Action (editor). NY: John Wiley.

1974. Problems of Industrial Society (editor). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

1973. Sociological Readings in the Conflict Perspective (editor). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

1972. Boxman: A Professional Thief's Journey (with Harry King). NY: Harper & Row.

1971. Law, Order, and Power (with Robert B. Seidman). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

1970. A Research Bibliography on the Sociology of Law (with Robert B. Seidman). Berkeley, CA: Glendessary Press.

1969. Crime and the Legal Process (editor). NY: McGraw-Hill.

Articles

"Criminal Conspiracies" (with Hunter Scott and Kelli Gelitis), forthcoming.

"The Bison Slaughter as State Crime" (with Chris Moloney), forthcoming.

"G.E.: A Case Study of a Habitaul Criminal Organization" (with Caroline Loprenzo), forthcoming.

"A Sociological Analysis of Housing Discrimination Law" (with Gregory Squires and Barlow Flores), forthcoming.

"Homicide Rates, Race and Class" (with Roland Chilton), forthcoming.

2011. "Pink Panthers and Mafia Myths" (with Elizabeth Williams) Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime. 

2008. "America's Crime Control Industry: A Self Perpetuating System" in Margaret Beare (ed.) Honouring Social JusticeToronto: University of Toronto Press.

2005. "Personal Journeys in Sociology." Michigan Sociological Review, 19, 1-14.

1996. "Another Lost War: The Costs and Consequences of Drug Prohibition." Social Justice, 22, 101-124.

1994. "Policing the Ghetto Underclass: The Politics of Law and Law Enforcement." Social Problems, May, 177-194.

1989. "State Organized Crime." Criminology, 27, 183-208.

1980. "On Lawmaking." British Journal of Law and Society, Winter, 149-172.

1977. "Markets, Profits, Labor and Smack." Contemporary Crises, 1, 53-77.

1975. "Toward a Political Economy of Crime." Theory and Society, March, 149-170.

1973. "The Saints and the Roughnecks." Society Nov/Dec, 24-31.

1967. "Types of Deviance and the Effectiveness of Legal Sanctions." Wisconsin Law Review, 3, 703-719.

 1964. "A Sociological Analysis of the Law of Vagrancy." Social Problems, Summer, 67-77.

PhD Indiana University, 1962