Dr. Mercer L. Sullivan has been a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark since 1996. Administration, faculty and current and former PhD students paid tribute and wished him farewell at a retirement luncheon in early May.

In addition to being brilliant educator and criminal justice expert, Dr. Sullivan is also quite the musician. He sang two songs at the event (one posted below). It added much to the already heartfelt and memorable occasion.

Dr. Sullivan is widely recognized for his ethnographic research on crime and other social problems in inner-city neighborhoods of the United States. His book Getting Paid: Youth, Crime, and Work in the Inner City, now in its tenth printing, serves as a touchstone for many discussions of the etiology and organization of street crime.

He consults regularly with government agencies, private foundations, and non-profit agencies on research and policies dealing with problems of crime and urban poverty.

He is currently a member of the National Science Foundation’s National Consortium on Violence Research and the National Research Council’s Panel on Juvenile Crime.