Dr. McCord’s research output was prodigious in both volume and scope of coverage. She co-wrote, edited, or co-edited 12 volumes between 1956 and 2004, on topics ranging from delinquency to alcoholism to violence in the inner city to criminological theory to crime prevention. One hundred and twenty seven journal articles and book chapters appeared between 1953 ("Two approaches to the cure of delinquents") and today ("Toward a theory of criminal responsibility”). Her work blazed many pathways in criminal justice and criminology.
Over the years she was passionate about being sure that programs intended to prevent delinquency or criminal behavior or drug abuse did not actually increase participants’ risk. This concern arose out of follow-up work done in the 1970s with participants assigned to a delinquency prevention program (The Cambridge-Somerville Project) in the 1930s. The follow-up work show those assigned the treatment fared worse than the controls. She strongly advocated employing true experiments with random assignment of participants in order to guard against “pushing” programs before we could be sure they were helping as intended. She had shown that harmful programs can sometimes happen even with programs one thinks could only be good.
In the last few years she began developing her own theory to provide insight into criminal responsibility. Her "schema" theory blended cognitive, behavioral, and contextual factors.
Another area of keen interest was longitudinal research, following individuals not just over time, but over generations, to understand the factors making criminal behavior or drug and alcohol abuse more or less likely.
People asked her to speak not only to academic audiences in this country but in Japan, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia, China, Sweden, and Spain.
Dr. McCord was born in New York City, attended high school in Tucson, and received her BA (1952) from Stanford University. She did graduate work in philosophy at Harvard and later at Stanford. She received her MA (1966, Sociology) and Ph.D. (1968, Sociology) degrees from Stanford University. She came to Temple in 1987 as a Professor. From 1968 to 1987 she progressed from Assistant to Full Professor of Sociology at Drexel University.
Other positions held included public school teacher of sixth graders in Concord, Massachusetts (1952-1955); Research Associate, Department of Sociology, Stanford University (1959-1965); Stanford Wilson Fellow in Philosophy at Stanford University (1962-63); Senior Associate, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (1986-1997); Fellow, Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, 2003-2004); and Co-Chair, Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control; National Research Council, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Committee on Law and Justice, National Academy of Sciences (1997-2001). Over the years she also held visiting positions at the University of Montreal and Stockholm University.
Honors bestowed upon Professor McCord included the Edwin H. Sutherland (1994) and Herbert Bloch (1991) awards from the American Society of Criminology, which made her a Fellow in 1982 and President for 1988-1989. The International Society of Criminology awarded her the Prix Emile Durkheim in 1993 and elected her Vice President effective 1995. The International Society for Research on Aggression made her a Fellow in 1984, and, more recently the American Academy of Experimental Criminology made her a Fellow in 1998. She served as chair for the Society of Life History Research from 1990-1992, and section chair for the Crime, Law and Deviance Section of the American Sociological Association from 1989 to 1990. Closer to home, Drexel University conferred its Research Achievement Award upon her in 1978; Temple University granted her its Faculty Research Award in 1997. She received a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1973 while at Drexel University. Most recently, in 2002 the Society for Research on Adolescence awarded her its Social Policy Best Journal Article Award.
Her service to the professions, in addition to the above, included chair or advisory or steering committee responsibilities for the National Research Council, National Institute of Justice, the Campbell Collaborative, National Center for Juvenile Justice, National Center for Education Statistics, and the Scientific Institute for Public Information. She served on panels for the National Institute of Justice, National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, and many foundations. She served as manuscript reviewer for forty journals, and served on the editorial boards of six scientific journals, and Temple University Press.
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