Richard Cloward

Richard Andrew Cloward, who lived from 1926 to 2001, was an American sociologist who taught for 47 years at Columbia University and helped shape strain theory in criminology. With Lloyd Ohlin, he co-authored Delinquency and Opportunity, developing differential opportunity theory to explain how blocked access to both legitimate and illegitimate means shapes the different forms delinquent gangs take. He was also a primary force behind the passage of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, known as the Motor Voter Act, and, with his wife Frances Fox Piven, developed the Cloward-Piven strategy for pursuing welfare and poverty reform.