Menachem Amir (20 July 1930 – 21 May 2015) was an Israeli criminologist. He spent most of his career as a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was the Benjamin Berger Chair Professor of Criminology until he retired in 1999.[1] [2] Amir received the Israel Prize from the Israeli government in 2003 for his work, one of the first two criminologists to do so alongside Shlomo Giora Shoham.[3]
Amir is best-known for his work on rape, including his article "Victim Precipitated Forcible Rape" (1968), and his first book Patterns in Forcible Rape (1971).[4] [5] His work was the first sociological study on the phenomenon of rape.[2] Patterns in Forcible Rape, a study of rape cases in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1958 and 1960, is notable in characterizing rapists as psychologically normal. According to a contemporary review by Albert J. Reiss, a sociologist at Yale University, Patterns in Forcible Rape assembled more "information on forcible-rape victims and their alleged offenders" than any previous study on the subject.[6]
Some American feminists utilized Amir's work in their anti-rape activism.[7]
Amir also worked on topics concerning juvenile delinquents, elderly victims of crime, and international organized crime.[2]
Menachem Amir was married to Dr. Delilah Amir, a sociologist at Tel Aviv University. They had two children, Orly and Gili. He died on 21 May 2015, at the age of 84.[8]