Edwin Michael Schur

SCHUR Edwin M. Sociologist and author, died peacefully on September11, 2025 at age 94. He was Professor Emeritus, New York University, had taught previously at Tufts University and Wellesley College, and had been a visiting scholar at The Center for the Study of Law and Society at University of California, Berkeley, and at the Harvard Law School. He also served as sociology department chair at Tufts and NYU. A graduate of Williams College and Yale Law School, he was admitted to the Bar in the State of Connecticut in June 1955. While serving in the U.S. Army (1955-57), he earned an MA in Sociology from the New School's graduate faculty. He then obtained the PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics. A prescient analyst of socio-legal issues, he was an early critic (in both scholarly and general publications) of laws criminalizing abortion, drug addiction, and homosexuality. He was an influential contributor to the professional literature in sociological criminology, and the theoretical analysis of deviance-labeling processes. Among his many books were Narcotic Addiction in Britain and America, Crimes Without Victims, Law and Society:A Sociological View, The Politics of Deviance, The Awareness Trap, and Labeling Women Deviant. In retirement, he turned to the study and practice of poetry-writing. His metrical poems (many written at his much-frequented vacation home in Monterey, MA) appeared in a range of small-press literary magazines. He is survived by his beloved and devoted wife of 51 years, Joan Brodsky Schur; their daughter Sarah Schur McCarty (Ethan); his three children from a previous marriage- Amy, David (Lori Yamato), and Owen (Nancy Enright); and three grandchildren- Zev Schur McCarty, Avi Schur McCarty, and Rebecca Enright-Schur. Contributions in his memory may be sent to the Center for Constitutional Rights or Doctors Without Borders.