Donald Cressey

Donald Ray Cressey (April 27, 1919 – July 21, 1987) was an American penologist, sociologist, and criminologist who made innovative contributions to the study of organized crime, prisons, criminology, the sociology of criminal law, white-collar crime.

Life and work Born in 1919 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, he obtained his bachelor's degree from Iowa State College in 1943 and earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1950. He taught sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Cressey himself did not use this term during his lifetime. For two of the three motivational factors identified by Cressey, he drew on the thoughts of the US-American sociologist of German-Danish origin Svend Riemer (1905–1977).

Donald Cressey died in Solvang, California, in 1987. He had a wife, Elaine, and three daughters (Martha, Ann, and Mary). for outstanding academic contributions to criminology.

The Cressey Award is bestowed annually by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners on one of its members for lifetime achievement in the detection and deterrence of fraud.

Works Solely authored works Criminal Organization: Its Elementary Forms, New York: Harper and Row, 1972. "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, 1953.

Co-authored works Coleman, James W., and Cressey, Donald R. Social Problems, New York: Prentice Hall, 1980. Sutherland, Edwin H., and Cressey, Donald. Principles of Criminology, 11th edn. Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 1992.