Hebrew U. Professor Awarded Stockholm Prize in Criminology

Hebrew U. Professor Awarded Stockholm Prize in Criminology

Prof David Weisburd of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was be awarded the 2010 Stockholm Prize in Criminology today at Stockholm's City Hall. The prize is being awarded to him in recognition of a series of experiments he conducted showing that intensified police patrol at high crime ''hot spots'' does not merely push crime around the corner. This is the first time in the prize's history that it has been awarded to just one recipient.

This line of research encourages police around the world to concentrate crime prevention efforts at less than five percent of all street corners and addresses where over 50 percent of all urban crime occurs, yielding far less total crime than with conventional patrol patterns.

The prize jury selected Prof. Weisburd's work on spatial displacement as the most influential single contribution of his wider body of work that has helped to bridge the gap between criminology and police practice. The jury noted that Prof. Weisburd has been a leader among the growing number of criminologists whose evidence shows how the application of research findings can help to reduce not only crime, but also the unnecessary impositions on public liberty from policing activities that do not address a predictable crime risk.

The evidence from research conducted by Weisburd and his colleagues in Jersey City and Seattle shows that crime can drop substantially in small ''hot spots'' without rising in other areas. Weisburd also produced evidence to demonstrate that the introduction of a crime prevention strategy in a small, high-crime place often creates a ''diffusion of benefits'' to nearby areas, reducing crime rather than increasing it in the immediate catchment zone around the high-crime target place. His evidence suggests that crimes depend not just on criminals, but on policing in key places.

The Stockholm prize is awarded by the Stockholm Criminology Symposium (http://www.criminologyprize.com/extra/pod/) – an annual event where international criminologists, policy makers, practitioners and others engaged in criminal policy matters can take part of the latest research findings of importance for crime policy and discuss strategies, methods and measures to reduce crime and improve levels of safety in society.

Prof. David Weisburd is the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the Hebrew University's Institute of Criminology in Jerusalem.