Albert John Reiss Jr. (December 9, 1922 – April 27, 2006) was an American sociologist and criminologist. He served as the William Graham Sumner Professor of Sociology at Yale University from 1970 until his retirement in 1993. He is recognized for his contributions to social control theory, as well as for his research on police violence. He has been credited with coining the term "proactive" while researching violent incidents between police and private citizens as a research director for Lyndon B. Johnson's President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. This research led Reiss to conclude that there was a greater risk of violence in proactive police encounters than in reactive ones, prompting innovation in policing practices in many American police departments.