Walter B. Miller (1920–2004) was an American anthropologist and was known for his study and publications on youth gangs.

Biography

Early life

Walter Benson Miller was born February 7, 1920, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and died March 28, 2004 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Associated Press. "Walter B. Miller, 84; was authority on youth gangs,
Boston.com April 07, 2004
Retrieved 6 Feb 2012. He was a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

(1948) graduate of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

with an M.A. in anthropology,Arizona Statue Universit
About Walter Miller
Retrieved 6 Feb 2012. and of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

with a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

social relations A social relation or also described as a social interaction or social experience is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more individuals ...

. He lived and studied with the Fox Indians of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

as part of the

, Department of Anthropology, Fox Indian Applied Anthropology Project from 1948 to 1953 under Clyde Kluckholm. Miller worked with

James Q. Wilson James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American political scientist and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Council of A ...

and Daniel Patrick Moynihan at the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies in the 1960s.

Career

Miller was director of Boston's Roxbury Gang Delinquency Research Project for the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...

from 1957 to 1964. Miller, a jazz, blues and bluegrass musician, found that his knowledge of and interest in music helped him establish rapport with gang youth. He published numerous papers from that project, including his major theoretical contribution, one of the most frequently cited papers in criminological literature, "Lower Class Subculture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency." Unlike other theories of youth gangs, Miller saw gang members as essentially normal youth who were trying to achieve belonging and status according to the criteria of their own lower and working class, as opposed to middle class, communities. From 1974 to 1980, Miller served as Project Director of the National Youth Gang Survey, the first national survey of violence by youth gangs and groups for the National Institute of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention based at Harvard Law School's Center for Criminal Justice. He was instrumental in founding the National Youth Gang Center. Until his death, he served as an Adjunct Research Consultant for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) in

Tallahassee, FL Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

, overseeing research for the National Youth Gang Center Project of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.

Major works

Miller, Walter B.1958 Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency. Journal of Social Issues 14, no. 3:5–19. Miller, Walter B. 2001. ''The Growth of Youth Gang Problems in the United States: 1970-98 : Report.'' Diane Pub Co. ()

Personal life

Miller was known in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area as a traditional

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

player,

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, and member of the Blue Horizon Jazz Band. Miller died at his home in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

on March 28, 2004.

References

External links

Bibliography of Collected Papers
* City Gangs, an unpublished boo
is available online

Photo
at Arizona State University School of Criminal Justice {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Walter B 1920 births 2004 deaths University of Chicago alumni Harvard University alumni 20th-century American anthropologists