Background

Joshua Dressler was born on the 30th of March, 1947 in New York City, New York, United States; the son of a criminology and sociology professor, David Dressier and a teacher, Belle Jaffe Dressier.

Education

Joshua Dressler attended the University of California in Los Angeles from 1965, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968. Later in 1973, he obtained a Juris Doctor degree in Political Science and Government from the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law.

Career

Joshua Dressler began his career in 1975 as an assistant professor of law at San Fernando Valley College Law in Los Angeles (now University of West Los Angeles), where he served until 1977. In 1977, he accepted the post of an associate professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, working until 1979. From 1979 to 1982, he was a professor of law there.

From 1983 to 1984, Joshua Dressler was a visiting professor at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law in Los Angeles. In 1991, he was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.

In 1982, Joshua joined Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, where he was a professor of law from 1982 to 1983 and from 1984 to 1993. He also served there as Development Chair in 1986. In 1993, he received the position of a professor of law at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, where he served until 2000. From 2000 to 2001, he was its Distinguished Professor and Scholar.

From 2001, Dressler is a Distinguished University Professor and the Frank R. Strong Chair in Law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He also was the University Distinguished Lecturer in 2005 and in 2007 he was the University Distinguished Scholar. He also has been a visiting professor at various law schools, including, Fordham University, University of Texas, University of Houston and Arizona State University. He also has taught courses at the University of British Columbia and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Dressler frequently is an invited speaker at law schools and conferences throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. He is also frequently called upon by local, national, and international media to comment on important criminal justice matters.

Joshua Dressler is the author of books on criminal law and criminal procedure. His first book, Understanding Criminal Law was published in 1987. He also wrote, Cases and Materials on Criminal Law in 1994, Criminal Procedure: Principles, Policies and Perspectives in 1999, and Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice in 2002. He is also the author of scholarly articles, legal journals, and book chapters.

Achievements

• Joshua Dressler is particularly known as a gifted educator and prolific author of books and articles in the fields of criminal law and criminal procedure, with the former used by professors at about 100 American law schools. His treatises in the field frequently are cited by scholars and courts.
  
  During his academic career, Joshua received a number of awards among which is the Best Professor Award in 1981 from Mitchell Hamline School of Law. He got the prestigious Donald H. Gordon Teaching Excellence Award from Wayne State University in 1990. He also won the Outstanding 1L Professor award from students at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1984, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas in 2018, and at Moritz in 2011-12.
  
  In 2005, Dressler received the honor of giving a University Distinguished Lecture, on the subject of battered women, to The Ohio State University community. In 2007, he received a University Distinguished Scholar Award. In 2014, Ohio State honored him as a Distinguished University Professor, which is the university’s highest faculty honor.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Cases and Materials on Criminal Law

    (This popular casebook, through the selection of classic a...)

    1994
  • Understanding Criminal Procedure

    (Understanding Criminal Procedure is primarily designed fo...)

    1991
  • Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice

    (A complete revision of the 1982 edition, the Encyclopedia...)

    1982
  • Black Letter Outline on Criminal Law

    (Black Letter Outlines are designed to help a law student ...)

    2005
  • Understanding Criminal Law

    (This comprehensive and clearly written Understanding trea...)

    1987
  • Criminal Procedure, Principles, Policies and Perspectives

    (For more than fifteen years, Criminal Procedure: Principl...)

    1999
  • Criminal Procedure: Principles, Policies, and Perspectives 1995

Views

Joshua Dressler believes, that society's punishment of wrongdoers need not inevitably come in the form of incarceration, a criminal conviction is our way of condemning the wrongdoer for his or her actions; the form of punishment should not violate human dignity.

Quotations: "I believe in mercy; in the law being compassionate. But, before the law can exercise mercy and forgiveness, there must be a recognition of responsibility".

Membership

Joshua Dressler is a member of the American Law Institute, Association of American Law Schools, American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, American Philo­sophical Association, Society for the Reform of the Criminal Law, Order of Coif, and Phi Beta Kappa.

• Chairperson section in criminal justice

  Association of American Law Schools , United States

  1991

Connections

Joshua Dressler is married to Dorothy Ann Kridler. They have one child, David Bethune.

Father:

David Dressler

Mother:

Belle (Jaffe) Dressler

Wife:

Dorothy Ann (Kridler) Dressler

Dorothy Ann has worked as a religious school director.

Son:

David Bethune Dressler