 Messner was elected a fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2002, and served as its president from 2010 to 2011.He has served as the chair of the Crime, Law, and Deviance Section of the American Sociological Association and on the executive committee for the Eastern Sociological Society.He received a Collins Fellowship from the University at Albany in 2007, and an award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities from the University chancellor in 2011.