Farrington, David

(b. 1944, Ormskirk, Lancashire, England). Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. Psychology, Cambridge University, England.

Farrington is Professor of Psychological Criminology at Cambridge University, President of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and Chair of the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group, which aims to produce systematic reviews of evaluations of criminological interventions.

Farrington completed one of the first detailed reviews of randomized experiments in criminology in 1983. His work in developmental criminology and criminal career research has been influenced by Donald West, Alfred Blumstein, Rolf Loeber, Lee Robins, and Joan McCord. His work in evaluation has been influenced by Tom Cook, Robert Boruch, and Lawrence Sherman.

With Brandon Welsh, he edited a special issue of Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2001 titled “What Works in Reducing Crime.” In 2003, he also published papers in Annals: “Methodological Quality Standards for Evaluation Research” and “British Randomized Experiments on Crime and Justice.”Along with Lawrence Sherman and Brandon Welsh, Farrington edited one of the first books on cost-benefit analysis in criminology, and he has written various papers on this topic. He has also edited books, including Evidence-Based[Page 154]Crime Prevention (2002) and Offender Rehabilitation in Practice (2001). With colleagues Brandon Welsh and Kate Painter, he has examined the impact of street lighting and closed-circuit television in reducing crime.

Farrington has received the Sellin-Glueck Award of the American Society of Criminology in 1984 for his international contributions to criminology and the Sutherland Award of the American Society of Criminology in 2002 for his outstanding contributions to criminology. His 1986 book Understanding and Controlling Crime (written with Lloyd Ohlin and James Q. Wilson), which advocated longitudinal-experimental research in criminology, won the 1988 prize for distinguished scholarship of the American Sociological Association Criminology Section.

He has been President of the British Society of Criminology, the American Society of Criminology, and the European Association of Psychology and Law, as well as Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Forensic Psychology. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Academy of Medical Sciences.