UC professor receives Stockholm Prize

The international jury of the Stockholm Prize recognizes the University of Cincinnati's Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus Dr. Francis T. Cullen for his evidence-based research that demonstrates the value of rehabilitation services linked to criminal sentencing. Cullen's research shows that science-based interventions with justice-involved individuals can prevent recidivism, giving an offender a chance to become a law-abiding citizen and promoting public safety. Cullen’s classic 1982 book, Reaffirming Rehabilitation, was an important rebuttal to claims that “nothing works” to change offenders and to efforts to reduce treatment services in several states and the United Kingdom. His work endorses efforts within prisons and other correctional settings that seek to decrease repeat offending through positive programs that encourage better decision making. His meta-analytic research, conducted with current and former students, demonstrates that prison sentences have little deterrent effect on reoffending. He now terms the “null effect” of custodial sanctions a “criminological fact.” 

Cullen is also one of the few individuals who has served as president of two of the world's largest and prominent criminology organizations, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences from 1993-1994 and the American Society of Criminology from 2003-2004. He has published more than 400 works, which have been cited more than 64,000 times.