McCord, Joan (1930–)

Throughout a career that so far has spanned five decades, Joan McCord has published and presented more than 100 articles. She is best known for her research on the influences of parental child-rearing practices and family socialization on delinquency, criminality, alcoholism, and psychopathy. She continues to advocate the use of the longitudinal method maintaining that it is a critical and superior methodological approach in researching and understanding the correlates of offending behavior. Indeed, McCord's early exposure to this methodology influenced her use of it over the course of her career.

Dr. McCord grew up in Tucson, where she met William (Bud) McCord. A high school friendship developed. They attended Stanford University together and subsequently were married. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Stanford in 1952, McCord worked as a public school teacher in Concord, Massachusetts. She credits her study of philosophy for helping her to understand the value of critical thinking and, in her own words, of enduring skepticism. Through her husband's summer employment at San Quentin penitentiary, she became interested in studying criminal behavior. A short time later, in 1956, work at a reform school led the pair to their initial interest in psychopaths and their first publication, Psychopathy and Delinquency. That same year, she accepted a position as a research assistant for Harvard's Laboratory of Human Development while earning her master's degree in education. In 1957, McCord embarked on a project evaluation of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study, an endeavor that would significantly focus and serve the majority of her lifework. McCord continued her work on juvenile and criminal behavior and earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University. While at Harvard, she served as a research assistant for Dr. Eleanor Maccoby, a pioneer in the field of human development. She credits this experience as being influential in steering the course and direction of her career.