Criminologist for All Seasons

• Date: 01 February 2016
• Published date: 01 February 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12165

VOLLMER AWARD COMMENTARY

VOLLMER AWARD

Criminologist for All Seasons

Brian Forst

American University

In naming C. Ronald Huff for the Vollmer Award for 2015, the American Society of

Criminology selected a person whose career has mirrored August Vollmer’s in several

remarkable ways. Like Vollmer, Huff is a renowned scholar; he is a former university

administrator who also served a brief term as a criminal justice executive. Ron’s scholarship

in several major areas—gangs and youth violence, wrongful convictions, corrections, me-

diation, and police employment—has been extraordinary by any measure. His leadership

in growing a vibrant criminology program as dean of the School of Social Ecology,Univer-

sity of California-Irvine, parallels Vollmer’s heading the first criminal justice program at the

University of California-Berkeley. Ron’s criminal justice experience as director of psychiatric

social work at the Lima State Hospital (a maximum-security institution for mentally disor-

dered criminal offenders) roughly parallels Vollmer’s brief term (1923–1924) as chief of the

Los Angeles Police Department, arguably with greater success than Vollmer. The similarities

go beyond the professional. Both individuals, it turns out, were also accomplished athletes

before establishing stellar reputations in criminology—Vollmer a boxer and swimmer, and

Huff a football linebacker.1

Professor Huff’s record of scholarship is both broad and deep. In the area of gangs and

youth violence, his study of gangs in South Florida and the Denver area was one of the first

to compare samples of gang youths with at-risk, non-gang youths to determine whether and

how gang involvement influences criminal behavior. The U.S. Department of Justice used

the findings to address gang issues nationwide. Professor Huff led complementary research

funded by the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, finding that Ohio gangs were

Direct correspondence to Brian Forst, Department of Justice, Law and Criminology, School of Public Affairs,

American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8043. (e-mail:

bforst@american.edu).

1. Professor Huff also has essential achievements and traits of several previous winners of the Vollmer

Award: distinction in the scholarly treatment of due process, in the spirit of Anthony Amsterdam and

Jerome Skolnick; comprehensive treatment of a vital domain of criminal justice policy (gangs), in the

spirit of James Fyfe (police use of force) and Joan Petersilia (probation); and a unique combination of

intellect and wit, in the spirit of Don Gottfredson and Norval Morris.

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12165 C2015 American Society of Criminology 17

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 15 rIssue 1