Kirchwey, George Washington

Kirchwey, George Washington

(1855–1942) law educator, criminologist, penologist; born in Detroit, Mich. He taught at Columbia Law School (1891–1916) before heading the New York School of Social Work's criminology department (1918–32). He helped elevate criminology to a scientific discipline while fighting for prisoner rehabilitation through state and national prison reform commissions. One of the first presidents of the American League for the Abolition of Capital Punishment (1927), he was also a pacifist and cinema enthusiast.