Joel Best


Joel Gordon Best is an American sociologist and criminologist. He is Professor Emeritus and a Francis Alison award winner in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. He specialized in topics such as social problems and deviance. His most recent research focused on awards, prizes, and honors in American culture.
Best earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and psychology in 1967, before studying sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, from which he earned a Master of Arts in 1968 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1971. In 1979, he earned an MA in United States history from the University of Minnesota.
He taught at Concordia College, California State University, Fresno, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and University of Delaware.
He served as a President of the Midwest Sociological Society and the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and was an editor of the journal Social Problems. When asked about his prolific output, Best responded, “If you write a page per day, or every few days, you will have a book by the end of the year.”
He was a source cast member on the critically acclaimed show Adam Ruins Everything. Best provided evidence supporting the fact that strangers, contrary to popular belief, do not and have never tampered with or poisoned the candy given to a trick-or-treater as far as records can provide.

Books

As author