Donald Black

Donald Black (1941–2024) was an American sociologist of law and University Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Virginia until his retirement in 2016. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1968 and taught at Yale and Harvard law schools before moving to Virginia in 1985. Black founded pure sociology, a theoretical approach explaining human behavior through social geometry, and authored influential works including The Behavior of Law, The Manners and Customs of the Police, and Moral Time.