Professor Joel Samaha Joins Sociology Faculty

Joel Samaha received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1972. He began his academic career after completing a law degree, briefly practicing law and writing headnotes for the National Labor Relations Board. He taught U.S. and World History in the Chicago Public Schools, and Tudor History at UCLA before coming to the “U� in 1971 with a joint appointment in the Departments of Criminal Justice Studies and History. He served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies (before it was merged with Sociology), became a member of the History Department faculty, and has for 35 years taught courses in criminal justice, criminal law, and criminal procedure in the Department of Sociology. Prof. Samaha has published numerous scholarly works on the history of criminal justice, including a monograph, "Law and Order in Historical Perspective: The Case of Elizabethan Essex"; and articles in the Historical Journal, American Journal of Legal History, Minnesota Law Review, William Mitchell Law Review, and Journal of Social History. He has also written three widely used textbooks, Criminal Law (8th edition 2005); Criminal Procedure (6th edition 2005); and Criminal Justice (7th edition 2006). After years of providing exceptional instruction in sociology classes, the Department of Sociology is pleased that he has now made Sociology his home.