Donald Black

Donald Black

Donald Black (Donald J. Black) was born in 1941. Donald passed away January 30th, 2024 at 83 years old. Black attended the University of Michigan where he received a Ph.D in sociology.

Donald Black made his name as a criminologist and sociologist who would ultimately become better known for his writings in sociology.

He was a Russell Sage Fellow in Social Science and Law at Yale before he was appointed to the Department of Sociology and the Law School. In 1979, he taught at Harvard and then moved to the University where he only taught law.

Over the years, he would become known as a theoretical sociologist as he published many works on the sociology of conflict, morality, and law. He expanded his work to include projects such as a theory of the behavior of supernatural beings such as God and a theory of differential success of ideas.

In addition to his books, Donald Black was an editorial board member of several scholarly journals and was the editor of the Studies on Law and Social Control series of books by Oxford University Press. He also lectured across the world and toured Japan, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, and England among many other countries.

Black was also the founder of the sociological paradigm, pure sociology. This is a theoretical approach that makes use of social geometry to explain human behavior that may be applied to ideas, religion, and art in addition to conflict management, conflict, and law.

He made use of current events, scientific data, and case studies to explore and chart the history, treatment, and nature of a misunderstood disorder which he claims is genetic. He cited evidence from neuroscience and genetics to assert that antisocial disorder is for the most part genetic.

Donald Black: F.A.Q