William Doerner

Professor in criminology and criminal justice

William (Bill) G. Doerner (born 1949) is a professor in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University. His research has covered topics such as criminal justice, delinquency, law enforcement, police management and procedures, and victimology.

Doerner was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He graduated from Fairfield University (in Fairfield, Connecticut) with a B. A. in Sociology in 1971. Continuing directly into graduate studies, he received his M. A. from Emory University (in Atlanta, Georgia) two years later and his Ph. D. in Sociology from the University of Tennessee (in Knoxville, Tennessee) in 1977. While working on his dissertation, he taught and conducted research at Marquette University (in Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Upon completion of his doctoral studies, he accepted a position in the College of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Florida State University where he currently teaches courses to undergraduate and graduate students. Several years after beginning as an assistant professorship, a neighbor invited him to ride along with county sheriff deputies. In 1980, he began working as a part time reserve officer with the Tallahassee Police Department. Besides serving as a one person patrol unit, he lectured at the state established Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy, evaluated police training programs, and provided in service training to dispatchers and veteran officers. In the 1990s, he conducted a police training seminar for the National Police Academy in Costa Rica that was sponsored by the Universidad de Costa Rica and the Florida/Costa Rica (FLORICA ) Linkage Institute. Doerner retired from policing in 2010. Throughout his academic career, Doerner has drawn on his practical experiences in law enforcement to write several textbooks and over sixty journal articles, book chapters, reviews, and monographs. He has served as editor for the American Journal of Criminal Justice and on the board of directors for the Southern Criminal Justice Association. In 2009, he was recognized for "significant contributions to the field of victimology and victim services" by the American Society of Victimology.