The Western Society of Criminology will award Cal State Long Beach chair of the criminal justice department, Henry Fradella, the 2008-2009 Fellows Award at the WSC’s February meeting.
Brenda Vogel, associate professor of criminal justice at CSULB, nominated Fradella for the award.
“I nominated Hank for this award because of his significant contributions to our field, especially those in courts and the law,” Vogel said in a prepared statement.
Fradella said that he feels honored to receive the award, which takes place Feb. 5 through 7 in San Diego.
“[T]his award is the most recent and the one of which I am most proud because it recognizes my contributions to the profession since becoming a professor,” Fradella said.
“So what I’ve written, my speaking engagements, my teaching — it all counts and it’s really nice to be recognized by my peers,” he added.
Fradella earned his bachelor’s degree from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. where he majored in psychology and triple minored in business management, criminal justice and education. He earned a master’s degree in forensic science, as well as a Juris Doctor from George Washington University and holds a doctorate in interdisciplinary justice studies from Arizona State University.
Fradella came to CSULB in August of 2007 after a national search for a new chair for the department. He had previously taught for 12 years in the department of criminology and justice studies at the College of New Jersey.
“I love [CSULB]. This is a great place to work, wonderful people,” he said.
Fradella has written four books and last spring won the CSULB Author of the Month Award. He specializes in an area of criminology called law and social control.
“That’s sort of a fancy way of saying that what I research and teach about is how changes in the law affect people’s behavior, and conversely how changes in people’s behavior affect the evolution of the law,” Fradella said.
Fradella focuses on the happenings of the courtroom “when they’re trying to figure out how to interpret new types of evidence especially forensic evidence,” Fradella said. “Forensic psychological evidence is my particular area of specialization.”
Fradella said that crime in California is different than crime in New Jersey.
“I think there’s more organized crime in New Jersey than there is say, here where it tends to be more gang-based,” Fradella said.
In his spare time, Fradella enjoys watching movies. He describes himself as “a huge movie buff” and said that he recently went through the entire AFI 100 Best Movies of All Time list. Hollywood has been “pretty bad” lately, Fradella added, with the exception of “Frost/Nixon.” Fradella also bowls competitively and enjoys traveling.