Howard P. Becker

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For other people named Howard Becker, see Howard Becker.

Howard Paul Becker (December 9, 1899 - June 8, 1960) was for many years professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Becker was the son of Charles Becker, a notoriously corrupt New York police officer who went to the electric chair for murder in July 1915, and Letitia Stenson, of Ontario. His parents divorced six years after his birth and Becker was brought up in Reno and Winnemucca, Nevada. He is perhaps best remembered as the author of the book Man in Reciprocity. At the time of his death he had just been elected President of the American Sociological Association, and his Presidential Address, entitled "Normative Reactions to Normlessness", was delivered by his son, the historian Christopher Bennett Becker.