Donald R. Cressey was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 penologist

Penology

Penology is a section of criminology that deals with the philosophy and practice of various societies in their attempts to repress criminal activities, and satisfy public opinion via an appropriate treatment regime for persons convicted of criminal offenses.The Oxford English Dictionary defines...

, sociologist

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, and criminologist

Criminology

Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...

 who made innovative contributions to the study of organized crime

Organized crime

Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

, prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

s, criminology, the sociology of criminal law

Criminal law

Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...

, white-collar crime

White-collar crime

Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...

.

Life and work

Born in 1919 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, he obtained his bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 from Iowa State College

Iowa State University

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

 in 1943 and earned his Ph.D.

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 from Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 in 1950. He taught sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara

University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...

. Along with Edwin Sutherland

Edwin Sutherland

Edwin H. Sutherland was an American sociologist. He is considered as one of the most influential criminologists of the twentieth century...

, he co-authored Principles of Criminology

Principles of Criminology

Principles of Criminology, authored by Edwin H. Sutherland and Donald R. Cressey, is hailed as the most authoritative work in the field of criminology. The first edition was published in 1934, although it was derived from a previous publication, Criminology...

, for 30 years the standard text in criminology. He also wrote Other People's Money, a study of embezzlement

Embezzlement

Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....

, and co-authored the popular textbook Social Problems. After his retirement, he was president of the Institute for Financial Crime Prevention, a foundation for the research of white-collar crime

White-collar crime

Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...

.

He served as a consultant on organized crime for the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice in 1966 and 1967. Based on research conducted in this capacity he wrote the acclaimed Theft of the Nation, a treatise on the Cosa Nostra, and later the smaller Criminal Organization, in which he extended his conceptualization of organized crime to include criminal groups other than the Cosa Nostra.

Cressey is credited with the theory of the "fraud triangle," three elements that must be present for occupational fraud.

Dr. Cressey died in Solvang, California

Solvang, California

Solvang is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It is one of the communities that make up the Santa Ynez Valley. The population was 5,245 at the 2010 census, down from 5,332 at the 2000 census...

, in 1987. He was survived by his wife, Elaine, and three daughters (Martha, Ann, and Mary).

Awards

The Donald Cressey Award is bestowed annually on an American academic by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for outstanding academic contributions to criminology.

The Cressey Award is bestowed annually by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Established in 1988 the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners is the professional organization that governs professional fraud examiners. Its activities include producing fraud information, tools and training. It also governs the professional designation of Certified Fraud Examiner...

on one of its members for lifetime achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud.

Solely authored works

• Criminal Organization: Its Elementary Forms. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. ISBN 006131692X
• "Methodological Problems in the Study of Organized Crime as a Social Problem." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 374 (1967).
• "Organized Crime and Inner-City Youth." Crime and Delinquency. 16:2 (1970).
• Theft of the Nation: The Structure and Operations of Organized Crime in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1969.
• Other People's Money: A Study in the Social Psychology of Embezzlement. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1973. ISBN 9780875852027

Co-authored works

• Coleman, James W. and Cressey, Donald R. Social Problems. New York: Prentice Hall, 1980. ISBN 0673996530
• Sutherland, Edwin H. and Cressey, Donald. Principles of Criminology. 11th ed. Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 1992. ISBN 0930390695