ANZSOC would like to extend their sincere congratulations to Professor Kathleen Daly for her selection as the American Society of Criminology Edwin H. Sutherland Awardee for 2024. The Edwin H. Sutherland award is is given to recognise outstanding scholarly contributions to theory or research in criminology on the etiology of criminal and deviant behaviour, the criminal justice system, corrections, law or justice. The distinguished contribution may be based on a single outstanding book or work, on a series of theoretical or research contributions, or on the accumulated contributions by a senior scholar.
ASC President, Valerie Jenness presented Kathleen with the award in San Francisco on November 13. Below, Kathleen reflects on her career, and what this award means to her.
What does this award mean to you personally?
Awards like the Sutherland are mobilised by your colleagues, who take the time to assemble a nomination letter and ask others to support it. Many people are deserving of the award, but do not receive it. I am fortunate to have had colleagues to nominate me and believe in the strength of the nomination. From 1960 to 2024, there were 63 award recipients (it was not given in one year). Of these, I am one of seven women (11 percent) to have received it. For me, it means that feminist and critical empirical research are recognised by the American Society of Criminology as worthy areas of investigation. Also of the 63 recipients, just three are Australia-connected. Two are hybrids: Norval Morris, who received the award in 2000, was New Zealand born, but attended and worked in Australian universities before going to the University of Chicago Law School in the 1960s; and myself (US and Australian universities). John Braithwaite, 100% Australian universities, broke the North American glass ceiling, when he received the award in 2004.
Who has been your biggest mentor or influence in your academic career?
Mentors and influence are different entities. I have had many mentors over the years, and each has contributed a different slice of insight. If I were to single out one person, it would be a fellow graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, from whom I learned so much about feminism, politics, and plain speaking: Aida Rodriquez. We have not been in touch for many years, but now may be the right time. Before going to university, I worked full-time for 3 years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where I learned about scientific practices and effective communication.
I have been strongly influenced by
- all the people I met and spoke with and the practices I observed while ‘out there’ in the research field;
- authors in law, the humanities, and social sciences, who wrote with grace and a direct, clear, and simple style, which I have sought to emulate;
- Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (1959, an older version), particularly Chapter V on ‘an approach to style’; and
- interdisciplinarity, with an appreciation of the differing modes of thought and argument in law, the humanities, and social sciences.
The intellectual influences began in the early 1970s and deepened throughout the 1980s, with feminist and critical race theories in socio-legal studies and criminology, on the one hand, and a commitment to careful empirical inquiry, both quantitative and qualitative, on the other. My move from the United States to Australia in 1995 to undertake a Senior Fulbright Scholarship on restorative justice at the Australian National University (with the encouragement and support of John Braithwaite) was decisive. At the time, some US colleagues viewed the move (and subsequent appointment at Griffith University in 1996) as risky, but it opened new doors and turned out to be the right move.
What do you see as some of your most significant research contributions or findings?
Five publications have been influential: ‘Feminism and criminology’ (1988, with Meda Chesney-Lind); ‘Women’s pathways to felony court: feminist theories of lawbreaking and problems of representation’ (1992); Gender, Crime, and Punishment (1994); ‘Restorative justice: the real story’ (2002); and ‘Rape and attrition in the legal process: an analysis of five countries’ (2010, with Brigitte Bouhours). However, with a current h-index of 57, my contribution is broad-based across a number of areas. Today, I am part of a new field of knowledge, ‘institutional justice’, which analyses responses to state- and faith-based institutional abuse of children and related historical/policy wrongs. My contribution began with Redressing Institutional Abuse of Children (2014), continues with my most recent publication, ‘Stepping out of the shadow of transitional justice: a theoretical framework for institutional justice’ (2024), and have its capstone with a planned book analysing over 60 case studies of recognition and redress in 21 countries and independent polities.
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Congratulations Kathy, we are proud to celebrate this incredible milestone with you.