American Society of Criminology division honors ASU school director with Lifetime Achievement Award

Watts Endowed Professor of Public Safety Beth Huebner, director of Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, has received the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division on Corrections and Sentencing of the American Society of Criminology (ASC).

The award honors an individual’s distinguished scholarship in the area of corrections and/or sentencing over a lifetime. Recipients must have 20 or more years of experience contributing to scholarly research.

Dean Cynthia Lietz of ASU's Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, where the university’s criminal justice school is based, said she wasn’t surprised to hear of Huebner’s achievement.

“Dr. Beth Huebner is nationally recognized for not just the rigor of her research, but also for the way her work has deeply impacted the field,” Lietz said. “We are fortunate to have a scholar who is so committed to use-inspired research leading ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.”

Huebner said she was honored to have been nominated for such a prestigious award from a society that she highly values.

“I have found my academic home in this organization, and I am so grateful for the support of this group's members and leaders. I am lucky to have had the ability to stand on the shoulders of some of the greats in the field, including my mentor Timothy Bynum, who has also been honored by this organization,” Huebner said. “I hope to have many more decades in the field and plan to use this time to encourage and support early-career scholars, who will become the true leaders in the field.”

Huebner is the third School of Criminology and Criminal Justice faculty member to receive the division’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Emeritus Professor John Hepburn and Regents Professor and former School of Criminology and Criminal Justice director Cassia Spohn received it in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

It is the second of two ASC awards Huebner won in 2023. Earlier this summer, the society announced Huebner’s selection as an ASC Fellow, the fourth faculty member from the school to be honored as such. The others are Emeritus Professor Scott Decker, who received it in 2012; Spohn in 2013; and Professor Michael Reisig in 2022.

Huebner received the recognitions at the society’s annual meeting Nov. 15–17 in Philadelphia.

Huebner became director of the school in January 2023, when she arrived at ASU from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She was an UMSL faculty member for 19 years.

ASC was founded in 1941 as the National Association of College Police Training Officials and given its current name 15 years later. The society is an international organization whose members pursue scholarly, scientific and professional knowledge concerning the measurement, etiology, consequences, prevention, control and treatment of crime and delinquency.