Michael Benson

Michael L. Benson

Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Associate

Professional Summary

Michael L. Benson received his PhD in sociology from the University of Illinois in 1982. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and a former President of the White-Collar Crime Research Consortium of the National White-Collar Crime Research Center.  In 2017, he received the Gilbert Geis Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division on White-Collar and Corporate Crime of the American Society of Criminology.  He has published extensively on white-collar and corporate crime in leading journals, including Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Problems.  His book, Combating Corporate Crime: Local Prosecutors at Work was awarded the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems Division on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency.  In 2016, he co-edited The Oxford Handbook on White-Collar Crime with Shanna R. Van Slyke and Francis T. Cullen.  The 3rd edition of his book, White-Collar Crime: An Opportunity Perspective, co-authored with Sally S. Simpson will be published in 2018. He has also authored two editions of Life-Course Criminology: An Introduction. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control, and private research foundations.