Henry D. McKay

{{Short description|American sociologist and criminologist}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}}

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| name = Henry D. McKay

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| birth_date = {{birth year|1899}}

| birth_place = Hand County, South Dakota (near Orient)

| death_date = {{death year and age|1980|1899}}

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| nationality = American

| fields = Criminology
Sociology

| workplaces = University of Chicago

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| education = Dakota Wesleyan University
University of Chicago

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Henry Donald McKay (1899–1980) was an American sociologist and criminologist who, along with Clifford Shaw, helped to establish the University of Chicago's Sociology Department as the leading program of its kind in the United States.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=McKay, Henry D. (1899–1980) |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Juvenile Justice |publisher=SAGE Publications, Inc. |location=2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, California, 91320, United States |url=http://sk.sagepub.com/reference/juvenilejustice/n74.xml |last=Thistlethwaite |first=Amy B. |date=2003 |pages=246–247 |doi=10.4135/9781412950640.n74 |isbn=978-0-7619-2358-9|url-access=subscription }}

He and Shaw were both considered members of the Chicago School of sociology. He also collaborated with Shaw on two highly influential studies on juvenile delinquency during the 1930s and 1940s. Shaw and McKay also developed social disorganization theory in a study published in 1942.{{Cite journal |last=Snodgrass |first=Jon |date=1976 |title=CLIFFORD R. SHAW AND HENRY D. McKAY: CHICAGO CRIMINOLOGISTS |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23636249 |journal=The British Journal of Criminology |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a046684 |jstor=23636249 |issn=0007-0955|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book |last1=Forsyth |first1=Craig J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NAjmBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |title=Encyclopedia of Social Deviance |last2=Copes |first2=Heith |date=2014-01-21 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-4833-6469-8 |pages=31 |language=en}}{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Social Disorganization Theory |url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/id/obo-9780199756384-0192 |last1=Wickes |first1=Rebecca |date=2017-02-28 |pages=9780199756384–0192 |language=en |doi=10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0192 |last2=Sydes |first2=Michelle|url-access=subscription }}