David L. Weisburd (born 1954), is an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i/American

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

who is well known for his research on crime and place, policing and white collar crime. Weisburd was the 2010 recipient of the prestigious

Stockholm Prize in Criminology The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international prize in the field of criminology, established under the aegis of the Swedish Ministry of Justice. It has a permanent endowment in the trust of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation. ...

, and was recently awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

in Social Work and Criminological Research, considered the state's highest honor. Weisburd holds joint tenured appointments as Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

. and Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Criminal Justice in the Institute of Criminology of the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Faculty of Law, At George Mason University Weisburd was founder of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy and is now its executive director. Weisburd also serves as Chief Science Advisor at the National

Police Foundation The National Policing Institute, formerly known as the Police Foundation, is an American non-profit organization dedicated to advancing policing through innovation and independent scientific research. It is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. ...

in Washington, D.C., and chair of its Research Advisory Committee. Weisburd was the founding editor of the Journal of Experimental Criminology, and is now the general editor of the

Journal of Quantitative Criminology The ''Journal of Quantitative Criminology'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of criminology. It was established in 1985 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media. The editors-in-chief are John MacDonald and Gre ...

Research

Weisburd is a prolific researcher, who by 2018 had received more than $15 million in competitive grant funding and published over 25 books, 125 journal articles and 75 book chapters. Weisburd is best known for his work in place-based criminology, experimental criminology, and white-collar crime. Weisburd's research on place-based criminology has demonstrated the importance of focusing on the role geographic microplaces, such as street blocks, play in explaining crime. For instance, in a 1995 study in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.crime concentrations in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

: Weisburd and his colleagues found that between 5% and 6% of street segments in the city generated over 50% of the crime incidents each year. Importantly, this research also showed that these crime concentrations remained stable across time and place over the 16-year study period. Weisburd has also replicated these findings in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, where almost the same levels of concentration were found as in his Seattle Study. In Weisburd's Sutherland Address to the American Society of Criminology in 2015 he argued that the consistency of crime concentrations across cities and across time was so great that it suggested a Law of Crime Concentration at Places. Weisburd's research has also repeatedly demonstrated the importance of these findings for crime prevention policy, particularly in the area of policing. With the focus on explaining crime through place-based factors, police and other crime prevention agencies have stable targets on which to focus their efforts. Beginning with a ground-breaking experimental study with Lawrence Sherman in 1995, Weisburd's research has repeatedly shown the efficacy of focusing police crime prevention resources on small hot spots of crime. Specifically, this body of research shows that crime and disorder is significantly reduced in targeted hot spots and that crime does not simply displace to nearby areas. In fact, Weisburd's research suggests that it is more likely that crime in nearby areas which received no extra police attention will also likely be reduced—a phenomenon that has been termed diffusion of crime control benefits. Weisburd's recent work has examined the impact of different types of police tactics in crime hot spots on people frequenting these targeted areas. One recent study examined the impact of police crackdowns on disorder on residents, while another focused on the New York Police department's usage of stop and frisks of suspicious persons. Related to this work, Weisburd has also advanced the importance of

randomized controlled trial A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical te ...

s in evaluating crime and justice policies and programs. Randomized, experimental designs produce the most valid and reliable evidence on the impact of policies or interventions, and thus Weisburd argues the field has a moral imperative to use experimental designs whenever feasible. His work in this area has also shown that there is a paradox in experimental studies, in which increasing sample size often has the unintended consequence of reducing the observed statistical power of a study. Finally, Weisburd has also made significant contributions to our understanding of white-collar crime. In a large-scale empirical study of white-collar crime, he found that white-collar criminals were often from the middle classes, had multiple contacts with the criminal justice system, and that much white-collar crime was mundane and everyday in character.

Education

Weisburd started his college career at Shimer College, leaving in 1973 to attend Brandeis University. Weisburd graduated magna cum laude in 1976, with a B.A. in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

, where he was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. Weisburd did his graduate studies at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he received an M.A. in sociology in 1978, an M.Phil. in sociology in 1980 and a Ph.D. in sociology in 1985.

Academia

Weisburd is currently a distinguished professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University and the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Criminal Justice of the Hebrew University Faculty of Law, and Prior to these appointments at Hebrew University and George Mason University, Weisburd served as a member of the faculty at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, College Park from 2002 to 2008 and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

from 1985 to 1993. Weisburd has also had a number of visiting and honorary appointments. These include a visiting professorship appointment at the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffiths University in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2004, visiting scholar at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 2007, and honorary professor at the Zehjiang Police College in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 2011. Weisburd has also held a number of research positions, in addition to his academic appointments. These included serving as a senior research associate at the Vera Institute in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

from 1984 to 1985, executive director of the Center for Crime Prevention Studies at Rutgers University from 1995 to 1996 (where Weisburd was also director from 1990 to 1995), senior research scientist at the Police Foundation in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

from 1997 to 2000 (where Weisburd is currently a senior fellow and chair of its research advisory committee), and visiting research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

from 2004 to 2006.

Awards and honors

Weisburd was awarded the

, the top honor in the field, in 2010. Weisburd has also been the recipient of numerous other awards and honors for his work in criminology and criminal justice. Most recently, he was awarded the

in Social Work and Criminological Research, considered the state's highest honor. In 2014, Weisburd received the Edwin H. Sutherland Award from the

American Society of Criminology The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization based on the campus of Ohio State University whose members focus on the study of crime and delinquency. It aims to grow and disseminate scholarly research, with members wo ...

(ASC), and in 2017 he received the August Vollmer Award for contributions to crime prevention from the ASC. In 2016 he received the ASC's Mentoring Award. In 2014 he received the Jerry Lee Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division of Experimental Criminology of the

, and the Robert Boruch Award for Distinctive Contributions to Research that Informs Public Policy by the Campbell Collaboration. In 2011, Weisburd was awarded the Klachky Family Award for Advances on the Frontiers of Science from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. In 2010, Weisburd was awarded the Minister's Prize for Outstanding Scientists, Ministry of Immigrant Absorption in Israel. In 2008, he was presented with the Joan McCord Award for Outstanding Contributions to Experimental Criminology by the Academy of Experimental Criminology, where he was also elected as a fellow in 2001. In 2005, Weisburd was elected as an honorary fellow of the

Selected works

* Weisburd, David, Elizabeth Groff and Sue-Ming Yang. (2012), The Criminology of Place: Street Segments And Our Understanding of the Crime Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Braga, Anthony and David Weisburd. (2010) Policing Problem Places: Crime Hot Spots and Effective Prevention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * * * * * * Weisburd, David and Elin Waring (with Ellen Chayet). (2001). White Collar Crime and Criminal Careers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weisburd, David Living people 1954 births American criminologists George Mason University faculty Academic journal editors Brandeis University alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni