John Hagan

John Hagan is an American-Canadian sociologist and criminologist. Born in Urbana, Illinois, he later moved to Canada, where he completed his PhD at the University of Alberta before pursuing an academic career in both Canada and the United States. He is Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University and a former president of the American Society of Criminology. Hagan is internationally known for his contributions to power-control theory, research on war crimes and state crime, and sociological analyses of law, inequality, and justice.

Hagan’s most influential theoretical contribution is Power-Control Theory, developed with A. R. Gillis and John Simpson, which explains how family structure and gender relations influence delinquency. Integrating insights from control theory, feminist theory, and family sociology, the theory argues that patriarchal family structures produce greater gender differences in delinquency than more egalitarian families. Beyond this work, Hagan has made major contributions to the sociology of law, state crime, international justice, and social stratification. His research combines rigorous empirical methods with sociological theory to examine how legal institutions, armed conflict, and systems of inequality shape patterns of crime and justice.

Interview

This video interview was conducted as part of the Oral History of Criminology Project. In this conversation, John Hagan reflects on his influential work in the sociology of law and criminology, including the development of Power-Control Theory and his research on state crime, war, and social justice.