Biography
David P. Farrington, O.B.E. is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Criminology at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University.
He received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology in 2013.
He was President of the American Society of Criminology in 1998-99 (the first person from outside North America to be elected to this office).
He is the first and only person to receive the four major awards of the American Society of Criminology: the Edwin Sutherland Award in 2002 for outstanding contributions to criminology, the Sellin-Glueck Award in 1984 for international contributions to criminology, the August Vollmer Award in 2014 for outstanding contributions to the prevention of delinquency, and the Herbert Bloch Award in 2018 for outstanding service contributions to criminology.
Most recently, he received the 2020 Life-Time Achievement Award and the 2021 Outstanding Contribution Award of the American Society of Criminology Division of Biopsychosocial Criminology, and the 2023 Outstanding Contribution Award of the American Society of Criminology Division of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology.
He is a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Academy of Medical Sciences, of the British Psychological Society, and the American Society of Criminology.
He is also an Honorary Life Member of the British Society of Criminology and of the British Psychological Society Division of Forensic Psychology.
He is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist, and a member of the editorial boards of several journals.
He has held the following roles:
- Acting Director of the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology
- President of the European Association of Psychology and Law
- President of the British Society of Criminology
- President of the Academy of Experimental Criminology
- Chair of the Division of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology of the American Society of Criminology
- Chair of the Division of Forensic Psychology of the British Psychological Society
- Chair of the Advisory Board of the European Commission Communities That Care project
- Vice-Chair of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Panel on Violence
- Co-chair of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Study Groups on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders and on Very Young Offenders
- Chair of the International Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group
- Co-chair of the U.S. National Institute of Justice Study Group on Transitions from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime
- Co-chair of the U.S. Centre for Disease Control’s Expert Panel on Protective Factors against Youth Violence
- Chair of the U.K. Department of Health Advisory Committee for the National Programme on Forensic Mental Health
- Chair of the Board of Examiners in Forensic Psychology of the British Psychological Society
- Co-chair of the High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board (U.K. Department of Health) Network on Primary Prevention of Adult Antisocial Behaviour
- Co-Principal Investigator of the Pittsburgh Youth Study
- A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Law and Justice
- A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Panel on Criminal Career Research
- A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Assessing the Research Programme of the National Institute of Justice
- A member of the Long Range Planning Committee of the American Society of Criminology
- Visiting Fellow at the U.S. National Institute of Justice
- Visiting Fellow at the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics
- A Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellow
- A member of the National Parole Board for England and Wales.
He has received the following awards:
- B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from Cambridge University, and an honorary degree of Sc.D. from Trinity College, University of Dublin
- John Paul Scott Award of the International Society for Research on Aggression for significant lifetime contributions to aggression research
- European Association of Psychology and Law Award for outstanding career-long contributions to the scientific study of law and human behaviour
- Joan McCord Award of the Academy of Experimental Criminology for distinguished contributions to life-course criminology
- Jerry Lee Award of the American Society of Criminology Division of Experimental Criminology for life-time achievements in experimental criminology
- Freda Adler Distinguished Scholar Award of the American Society of Criminology Division of International Criminology
- Robert Boruch Award of the International Campbell Collaboration for contributions to research that Informs public policy
- Beccaria Gold Medal of the Criminology Society of German-Speaking Countries
- Senior Prize of the British Psychological Society Division of Forensic Psychology
- U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Outstanding Contributions Award
- Hermann Mannheim Prize of the International Centre for Comparative Criminology
- Juvenile Justice Without Borders International Award of the International Juvenile Justice Observatory in Belgium.
His major research interest is in developmental criminology, and he was Director of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of over 400 London males from age 8 to age 61.
In addition to 925 published journal articles and book chapters on criminological and psychological topics, he has published 136 books, monographs and government publications, and 164 shorter publications (total = 1,225).
According to Google Scholar on March 18, 2024, his publications have been cited a total of 139,611 times; his h-index was 194, which means that 194 of his publications have each been cited at least 194 times, and his i10-index was 811, which means that 811 of his publications have been cited at least 10 times.
Updated: March 18, 2024
Research
Professor David P. Farrington, O.B.E., is a chartered forensic psychologist whose interests focus particularly upon developmental and life-course criminology, longitudinal studies of criminal careers, risk-focussed prevention and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. He is the co-director of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a 60-year follow-up of 400 London males. Their adult children have recently been interviewed to make this a three-generation study. In addition to many research papers on risk factors and the development of offending, Professor Farrington has published widely on other topics, including methodological quality in evaluation research, comparative criminology, crime and physical health, criminal career models, shoplifting, bullying, developmental prevention, CCTV, street lighting, risk assessment, desistance, cost-benefit analysis, the effectiveness of programmes for young offenders, psychopathy, developmental and life course theories, offender profiling, and the prediction of homicide.
Professor Farrington’s books include:
- Understanding and Controlling Crime (1986)
- Human Development and Criminal Behaviour (1991)
- Psychological Explanations of Crime (1994)
- Building a Safer Society (1995)
- Biosocial Bases of Violence (1997)
- Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders (1998)
- Antisocial Behaviour and Mental Health Problems (1998)
- Evaluating Criminology and Criminal Justice (1998)
- Costs and Benefits of Preventing Crime (2001)
- Child Delinquents (2001)
- Offender Rehabilitation in Practice (2001)
- Sex and Violence (2001)
- Evidence-Based Crime Prevention (2002)
- Early Prevention of Adult Antisocial Behaviour (2003)
- Integrated Developmental and Life-course Theories of Offending (2005)
- Crime and Punishment in Western Countries, 1980-1999 (2005)
- Reducing Crime: The Effectiveness of Criminal Justice Interventions (2006)
- Preventing Crime: What Works for Children, Offenders, Victims and Places (2006)
- Key Issues in Criminal Career Research (2007)
- Saving Children from a Life of Crime (2007)
- Violence and Serious Theft (2008)
- Dictionary of Forensic Psychology (2008) Making Public Places Safer (2009)
- Young Homicide Offenders and Victims (2011)
- The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention (2012)
- From Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime (2012)
- Young Adult Offenders (2012)
- Scholarly Influence in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2012)
- Explaining Criminal Careers (2012)
- Offending from Childhood to Late Middle Age (2013)
- Labelling Theory: Empirical Tests (2014)
- Most-Cited Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1986-2010 (2014)
- Parental Incarceration and Child Development (2014)
- Criminal Recidivism: Explanation, Prediction and Prevention (2016)
- The Psychology of Crime, Policing and Courts (2016)
- Offending from Childhood to Young Adulthood (2016)
- What Works in Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation (2016)
- Female Delinquency from Childhood to Young adulthood (2017)
- Protecting Children Against Bullying and its Consequences (2017)
- International Perspectives on Cyberbullying (2018)
- The Oxford Handbook of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (2019)
- Communities That Care (2019)
- Crime in Japan (2019)
- Handbook of Crime Correlates (2019)
- Evidence-Based Offender Profiling (2020)
- Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe (2021)
- Empathy versus Offending, Aggression and Bullying (2021)
- Testing Criminal Career Theories in British and American Longitudinal Studies (2022)
- Most Influential Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1986-2020 (2023)
- Offending from Childhood to Late Middle Age: Recent Results from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (second edition
- 2023)
- Emotional and Behavioural Problems of Young Offenders in Singapore: Findings from the EPYC Study (2023)
- Understanding and Preventing Recidivism of Young Offenders in Argentina (2024).
Updated: March 18, 2024
Publications
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Updated: March 18, 2024
