The Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime (DWCC) holds nominations for awards each year designed to promote and highlight scholarly efforts in the broad areas of white-collar crime, corporate crime, organizational deviance, crimes of the powerful, and corruption. Award recipients are presented with an engraved plaque at each annual conference (no monetary awards are given). Winners are not required to attend the conference to accept the awards.

All nominations (including self-nominations) must come from individuals who are DWCC dues-paying members in good standing as of the start of Awards season. Award winners must agree to join the Division prior to receiving the award.

The next award nominations cycle will begin in Spring 2025.

The DWCC makes the following awards.

1. Gilbert Geis Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognizes sustained outstanding professional contributions by an individual to the broadly defined areas of white-collar crime and corporate crime. Scholarly contributions may be empirical or theoretical. Professional contributions also include advocating for white-collar crime as an area of scholarship within criminology and related disciplines and mentoring graduate students. Persons who have made substantial practical contributions to white-collar crime control also are eligible to receive this award. The committee may elect not to make this award in any given year.

2. David O. Friedrichs Teaching Award

This inaugural award celebrates the life and achievements of David O. Friedrichs, who passed away on December 1, 2022. His text, Trusted Criminals: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society – now in its fourth edition – helped countless students embark on both research and practitioner-oriented careers related to confronting white-collar crime and crimes of the powerful. The award recognizes innovative contributions to teaching in the area of white-collar crime. Persons who have developed courses, seminars, and/or pedagogical materials on the study of white-collar crime within and beyond the criminology and criminal justice curriculum are eligible to receive this award. The committee may elect not to make this award in any given year.

3. Young Career Award

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to scholarship to the broadly defined areas of white-collar and corporate crime by persons early in their professional careers. To be eligible for this award, an individual must have received their terminal degree no more than eight years before the year of the award and have developed a strong research agenda in white-collar or corporate crime since the time of the terminal degree as indicated by regular publications in these areas. The committee may elect not to make this award in any given year.

4. Student Paper Award

The award recognizes scholarly work of students in the broadly defined areas of white-collar and corporate crime. Students working by themselves or as part of a team of co-authors who are currently enrolled in an academic program or a recent graduate of such a program (no more than one year removed from the year of the award) at either the undergraduate or graduate level are eligible for the competition. Paper submissions may be conceptual, theoretical and/or empirical (quantitative or qualitative) and must be a completed project directly related to white-collar or corporate crime. Papers must be the work of one or more students but should not be co-authored with a faculty member, though a review and endorsement by a faculty member of the student’s choice is required for submission. Papers must also be a maximum of 30 pages (including tables and references) and formatted in APA style. The committee may elect not to make this award in any given year.

5. Outstanding Book Award

This award recognizes outstanding scholarship in a monograph or textbook within the broadly defined areas of white-collar crime and corporate crime. Books published within three years (i.e., a publication date of 2020 or later) of the award are eligible for consideration. The committee may elect not to give this award in any given year. 

6. Outstanding Article or Book Chapter Award

This award recognizes outstanding scholarship in the form of an article or book chapter in the broadly defined areas of white-collar and corporate crime. Articles or chapters published within three years (i.e., a publication date of 2020 or later) of the award are eligible for consideration. The committee may give one primary award as well as award an “Honorable Mention” – or may elect not to give this award in any given year.