Sheldon Glueck

Sheldon Glueck (August 15, 1896 – March 10, 1980) was a Polish-American criminologist. Born in Poland, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1920. He received his PhD from Harvard University and taught there from 1925 to 1963.

During the aftermath of the Holocaust he was one of the leading advocates for the creation of an international criminal court to punish crimes against humanity.

He is best known for the research he did with his wife, Eleanor Glueck, on criminal behavior. Their landmark studies of inmates at the Massachusetts Reformatory examined the efficacy of the penal system and recidivism rates. In their controversial 1950 work Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency the two claimed that potential deviants could be identified by as young as six years of age.

Literary works

 * 500 Criminal Careers (1930)
 * War Criminals: Their Prosecution and Punishment (1944)
 * Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (1950)
 * Identification of Predelinquents (1972)