In November 2024, CSSH Dean Kellee Tsai appointed SCCJ Professor Brandon Welsh as the inaugural Dean’s Professor of Criminology. The timing was rather consequential. Dr. Welsh had recently been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the ASC’s Division of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, and had just given the David P. Farrington Lecture at the ASC’s annual meeting in San Francisco. As noted by Dr. Welsh:
David meant the world to me. He was my Ph.D. advisor at Cambridge University, a long-time research collaborator, and a dear friend. Sadly, he passed away nine days before I gave the lecture. He is sorely missed.
Here is Dr. Welsh’s lecture article, published in the Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology.
Dr. Welsh is also the Co-Director (with Professor Eric Piza) of the Crime Prevention Lab and the Director of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. From 2022-2024, he was the Visiting Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). His research and teaching focuses on the prevention of delinquency, crime, and interpersonal violence (via developmental, environmental, and community approaches) and evidence-based social policy. As he took on this role, Dr. Welsh was directing three major research projects—each involving current and former SCCJ doctoral students. The first resulted in The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Crime and Justice Policy (Oxford University Press, 2024), edited with Professors Steven Zane and Daniel Mears (both at FSU). Three weeks ago, a second book was published: Between Medicine and Criminology: Richard Cabot and the Making of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study (Oxford University Press, 2025). Written with Zane and HMS colleague Professor Scott Podolsky, it is the first book about the history of the making of this pioneering study (started in 1935) and what this history holds for modern criminology.
New book from Northeastern professor looks at history of groundbreaking criminology study
Another volume in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, slated for publication this summer, is titled Crime Prevention for Social Impact and Social Justice, and edited with Eric Piza. The volume advances the need for and examines the progress being made by crime prevention interventions to bring about social impact and social justice. In commenting on the volume, Dr. Welsh said:
We were able to bring together the leading scholars, researchers, and policymakers in the field. And we’re really proud of the work and the potential it holds for reshaping how we think about crime prevention and leading to improved practices and policies.
