Distinguished scholar award for distinguished professor

Valerie Jenness

Division on Women and Crime of American Society of Criminology honors Valerie Jenness

Valerie Jenness, distinguished professor of criminology, law and society and UCI’s acting vice provost for academic planning, is this year’s recipient of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology’s Distinguished Scholar Award.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of women and crime by an established scholar. The contributions may consist of a single outstanding book or work, a series of theoretical or research contributions, or the accumulated contributions of an established scholar. 

Since joining UCI in 1997, Professor Jenness has served in a range of administrative roles, including dean of the School of Social Ecology from 2009-2015 and chair of the Department of Criminology, Law and Society from 2001-2006. 

Jenness earned her Ph.D. in sociology at UC Santa Barbara. Her research has focused on prostitution, hate crime, prison violence, and prisoner grievance systems as well as law, policy, and reform more generally. She is the author of four books and numerous articles published in highly regarded journals in sociology, law and society, criminology, and gender.

She has been honored with numerous awards. Her teaching and mentoring has received campus and national recognition, including the UCI Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, the American Society of Criminology’s Teaching Award and the President’s Award for Mentoring from the Western Society of Criminology. Her research has been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association, Society for the Study of Social Problems, the Pacific Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the Law and Society Association, the Western Society of Criminology, the University of California, and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America.

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