A leading expert in the field of criminology plans to trace the highlights of his lifelong career in criminal justice at a special convocation held in his honor at Grand Valley State University.
A criminologist for five decades, Dr. Lewis Yablonsky has been involved in the issue of crime from almost every angle ¿ from working with street gangs, addicts and convicts to teaching at a university and traveling nationwide to promote psychodrama, a role-playing therapy for offenders. Now working on his 17th book, the septuagenarian offers his extensive experience as a consultant on criminal cases.
GVSU's School of Criminal Justice will recognize Yablonsky's lifetime contributions by presenting him for the Honorary Doctorate of Law, bestowed in a special convocation at 2 p.m. on Thursday, January 25, at the Cook-DeWitt Center, Allendale campus. At the convocation, Yablonsky will speak on My Life as a Criminologist.
He will then offer his views on the criminal justice system in a second presentation, Perspectives on Criminal Justice and Crime, at a reception following the convocation, beginning at 4 p.m. in the Amway Board Room, DeVos Center, fifth floor, on Grand Valley's Pew Grand Rapids Campus, 401 W. Fulton St.
Members of the media are welcome to attend both presentations. Yablonsky will be available for interview following his speeches.
James Houston, director of Grand Valley's School of Criminal Justice, names Yablonsky as one of the nation's most significant criminologists of the past 40 years. His contributions include not only working with offenders, but also in developing sociological theory to help us understand the dynamics of criminal behavior, said Houston.
Yablonsky grew up surrounded by poverty and crime in Newark, N.J., where he said he was beaten by whites because he was a Jew, and by blacks because he was white. He was close to the city's gang and crime scene, but found an out by serving in the Navy and then attending Rutgers University on the GI Bill. Immediately drawn to sociology and criminology, he went on to earn a doctorate in both subjects at New York University and to teach at California State University-Northridge, where he was a professor of criminology and sociology for over 30 years. He was awarded emeritus status in 1994.
From the early 1960s, Yablonsky wrote about his associations with issues of the day. In 1962, his work with New York City street gangs led him to publish The Violent Gang, a widely acclaimed study of urban delinquents. He became best known, however, for his next book, Synanon: The Tunnel Back, which acquainted the world with a new approach for overcoming addiction. As a student and then colleague of the noted psychiatrist J.L. Moreno, Yablonsky has worked extensively with psychodrama, a therapy which involves the use of role playing and direct confrontation.
Now in his mid-70s, Yablonsky has turned from the classroom to the courtroom, where he serves as an expert witness on criminal cases. His highest profile case was his testimony against Damien Williams, subsequently jailed for the beating of Reginald Denny after the 1992 Rodney King verdict.
Yablonsky is currently working on his 17th book, Criminology: Into the 21st Century, and continues to speak worldwide as an authority on crime and psychotherapy.
He's very much in touch with the state of the criminal justice system today, noted Houston.
