Joan Ramme Petersilia (January 2, 1951 – September 23, 2019) was an American criminologist and the Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law at

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

, as well as the faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.

Education

Petersilia received her B.A. from

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

in 1972 in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

, her M.A. from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1974, also in sociology, and her Ph.D. from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

in criminology, law & society in 1990.

Career

Petersilia began working for the

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

in 1974, and remained there until 1994. She joined the faculty of the University of California, Irvine in 1992 as a professor of criminology, law and society, and in 2005, she became the founding director of the Center on Evidence-Based Corrections there. She joined the faculty of Stanford Law School in 2009. She was a founding co-editor of the journal the '' Annual Review of Criminology''.

Research

Petersilia researched

prisoner reentry Prisoner reentry is the process by which prisoners who have been released return to the community. Many types of programs have been implemented with the goal of reducing recidivism and have been found to be effective for this purpose. Consideration ...

for over three decades.

Honors, awards and positions

For her research into prisoner reentry and the process of reintegrating released prisoners into society, Petersilia, along with

Daniel Nagin Daniel Steven Nagin (born November 29, 1948) is an American criminologist, statistician, and the Teresa and H. John Heinz III University Professor of Public Policy and Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College. Education Nagin re ...

, was awarded the 2014

Stockholm Prize in Criminology The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international prize in the field of criminology, established under the aegis of the Swedish Ministry of Justice. It has a permanent endowment in the trust of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation. ...

. Also that year, she received an honorary Doctor of Public Policy from the

Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School (Pardee RAND) is a private graduate school associated with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. The school offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAN ...

. She also served as president of the

American Society of Criminology The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization based on the campus of Ohio State University whose members focus on the study of crime and delinquency. It aims to grow and disseminate scholarly research, with members wo ...

and the Association of Criminal Justice Research in California. She was also a fellow of the American Society of Criminology and the recipient of its Vollmer Award.

Death

Petersilia died on September 23, 2019 from

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...

. She had retired for health reasons a year earlier.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petersilia, Joan 1951 births 2019 deaths Stanford Law School faculty Loyola Marymount University alumni Ohio State University Graduate School alumni University of California, Irvine alumni University of California, Irvine faculty RAND Corporation people American criminologists Winners of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Presidents of the American Society of Criminology American women criminologists Deaths from ovarian cancer Annual Reviews (publisher) editors