Sutherland, Edwin H. (1883–1950)

Edwin Sutherland is widely considered the dean of American criminology. Contemporary criminological research is impossible to imagine without the theory, methods, and substance of his work. Born in Gibbon, [Page 1447]Nebraska, he received a bachelor's degree in 1904 at Grand Island College, where his father, George, was president. From 1906 to 1913, he was a graduate student in sociology at the University of Chicago, where he studied with George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), W. I. Thomas (1863–1947), Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929), and John Dewey (1859–1952), all of whom emphasized the creation of culture through human interaction.

After receiving his PhD in 1913, Sutherland taught at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, until 1919 and then at the University of Illinois from 1919 to 1926. There in 1924, ...