The purpose of the International Society of Crime Science is to cultivate, nurture, support, and advance the discipline of crime science, including education, research, policy, and practice in Crime Science.
Our Story
The term crime science was coined in the 1990s to describe an approach that was distinct in several ways from traditional criminology. Building on related work in geography, psychology, architecture, economics, and other disciplines, crime science shifts the usual focus on the offenders’ criminal propensities, to understanding how, when, where, and why crime events occur. Put simply, crime science is dedicated to applying scientific methods and knowledge from many disciplines to the development of practical and ethical ways to reduce crime and increase security.
Crime science was first taught as an academic subject at University College London in 2001, with degrees awarded at bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels. The term has been subsequently picked up by other universities, there is a crime science journal and dedicated book series, and regular crime science conferences are held.
As interest in crime science spread, an international cohort of crime scientists began to emerge. The idea of an international society, which would reinforce its distinctive interdisciplinary status, began to emerge at a meeting of the Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis group in Nashville, in 2025. At that meeting Dean Nancy La Vigne (Rutgers) was invited to act as Chair of the new international society with Professor Kate Bowers (UCL) as Secretary and Professor Graham Farrell (University of Leeds), as Treasurer.
The Society was officially launched in April, 2026.
Trustees
Martin A. Andresen is a Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. Martin received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from Simon Fraser University, and his Ph.D. in geography from the University of British Columbia. Martin’s general research interests are in crime and places, environmental criminology, the geography of crime, spatial crime analysis, and applied spatial statistics and geographical information analysis. He is an Associate Member in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University, an Affiliated Scholar in the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University, and Chair of the Crime and Place Working Group in the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University.
Kate Bowers is a Professor at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science (SCS) and the UCL Jill Dando Institute (JDI). Kate works across the discipline of crime science with research interests focusing on the use of quantitative methods and data analytics in crime analysis, crime prevention and policing. She has a general interest in developing and applying the opportunity theories of crime. She has broad experience in crime science, and past appointments include acting as Head of Department of SCS, Director of the JDI, Academic Director of the JDI Secure Data Lab and Editor-in-Chief of the Crime Science Journal.
Gregory Breetzke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His research focuses mainly on the geospatial analysis of crime and criminal offenders with specific focus on crime seasonality, fear of crime, and geodemographic offender profiling. Prof Breetzke has been quoted frequently in media and has presented his research at numerous local and international academic conferences/symposia around the world. He has won numerous awards for his research and has active research collaborations with colleagues in various countries. Among others, he is a member of Environmental Crime and Crime Analysis (ECCA) symposium which is an informal association of leading international scholars in the fields of environmental criminology, crime science, situational crime prevention, intelligence-led policing and problem-oriented policing. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Crime Science which is the preeminent journal in the field of environmental criminology.
Graham Farrell is professor of crime science at the University of Leeds. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and has worked at Oxford University, the Home Office, the United Nations in Vienna, Austria, at universities in Canada (Simon Fraser) and the US (Rutgers, Cincinnati) and as deputy research director at the Police Foundation in Washington DC. He has completed a wide range of evaluation and other policy-related research, in recent years much of it focusing on crime opportunity theory and the international crime drop.
Dr. Tamara D. Herold is a crime scientist and Professor in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Texas State University, where she also serves as the TXST Director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Her work focuses on crime prevention, environmental criminology, place management, crowd dynamics, police problem solving, and translating research into practical strategies for policing. An Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she also previously served as a Senior Advisor at the National Institute of Justice, where she helped strengthen connections between research, policy, and practice. Dr. Herold co-developed Place Network Investigations, a violence reduction approach recognized with the 2017 Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing. Across her work, she is committed to helping police agencies prevent harm, solve problems more effectively, strengthen organizational learning, and support the safety, wellness, and success of their personnel.
Nancy La Vigne, PhD, is Dean of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on crime prevention, correctional reform, community safety, reentry, victim services, and the use of evidence to improve justice system outcomes. Prior to joining Rutgers, she served as Director of the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she oversaw the federal government’s criminal justice research activities and investments. Throughout her career, she has worked to bridge research, policy, and practice through partnerships with government agencies, community organizations, and practitioners. At Rutgers, she leads initiatives that advance innovative research, student success, and public impact. She is President of the International Society of Crime Science and President-Elect of the American Society of Criminology. She has a PhD from Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, Master’s degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, and a Bachelor’s degree in government from Smith College.
Gloria Laycock has a BSc and PhD in psychology from UCL. She established and headed the Home Office Police Research Group and was founding Director of the UCL Jill Dando Institute. Gloria has held Visiting Fellowships at the US Department of Justice and the Australian Institute of Criminology in Canberra and was a founding editor of the Crime Science Journal. She has carried out research and development in prisons, policing and crime prevention and has acted as a consultant and trainer on policing matters around the world. Gloria was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2008 for services to crime policy. She is currently Professor Emeritus of Crime Science and an Honorary Fellow at UCL.
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Gohar A. Petrossian is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Deputy Executive Officer of the Criminal Justice Doctoral Program at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Gohar is a crime scientist whose research focuses on crimes against wildlife, particularly illegal fishing and wildlife trafficking. She has broad experience in wildlife and environmental crime research and has served as an invited speaker and panelist for various international intergovernmental organizations (WCS, Fauna & Flora), as well as for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI.
Stijn Ruiter, PhD, is trained as a quantitative sociologist, specialized in geographic and environmental criminology, interested in understanding why crime happens where and when it does and rigorous testing of its explanations, and the policies and practices to prevent it. Stijn is Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) and Professor of Evidence-Based Policing at the Department of Criminology of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is program leader of the research program What Works in Policing: Towards Evidence-Based Policing in the Netherlands.
Lisa Tompson is Associate Professor and Director of Te Puna Haumaru Centre for Security and Crime Science at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Before joining Waikato, she spent 15 years at UCL’s Department of Security and Crime Science, where she completed her MSc and PhD. Her work focuses on understanding crime problems and developing prevention approaches that are credible, ethical, and effective. She works across disciplines, sectors and communities to produce evidence that can make a tangible difference to policy and practice. Dr Tompson is also a Co-Chair and Editor of the Campbell Collaboration Crime & Justice Coordinating Group, overseeing the production of rigorous evidence syntheses for decision-makers.
Richard Wortley …..