The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Criminal Justice,
#151
Angela Hawken
#54831
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Angela Hawken is a professor of public policy and director of Litmus at the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University. Her research focuses primarily on drugs, crime, and corruption, and combines experimental and quantitative methods.
Go to Profile#152
Lorie Fridell
#110885
Overall Influence
Lorie A. Fridell is an American criminologist known for her research on police, especially regarding racial profiling. She is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida , where she has taught since 2005. She was previously the research director at the Police Executive Research Forum for six years . She is the co-editor-in-chief of Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, along with her USF colleague Wesley Jennings.
Go to Profile#153
Todd Clear
#110136
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Todd Ray Clear is an American criminologist and distinguished professor in the school of criminal justice at Rutgers University–Newark. Education Clear received his BA in sociology from Anderson University in 1971, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in criminal justice from the State University of New York, Albany in 1972 and 1977, respectively.
Go to Profile#154
Zakaria Erzinçlioğlu
#78309
Overall Influence
1951 - 2002 (51 years)
Zakaria Erzinçlioğlu , also known as Dr Zak, was a British forensic entomologist. He used his expertise in insect biology in criminal investigations and solved more than 200 murders, earning him an international reputation.
Go to Profile#155
Stefan Savage
#36207
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Stefan Savage is an American computer science researcher, currently a Professor in the Systems and Networking Group at the University of California, San Diego. There, he holds the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Chair in Information and Computer Science. Savage is widely cited in computer security, particularly in the areas of email spam, network worms and malware propagation, distributed denial of service mitigation and traceback, automotive hacking and wireless security. He received his undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington .
Go to Profile#156
Wesley Jennings
#125163
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Wesley Glenn Jennings is an American criminologist. Career He is currently a professor and department chair in the Department of Criminal Justice & Legal Studies at the University of Mississippi. He was previously a professor and coordinator of the doctoral program in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University and associate professor in the Department of Criminology at University of South Florida, where he was also the Department's associate chairman and undergraduate director. He has previously been recognized as the #1 criminologist in the world in a 2012 paper in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education.
Go to Profile#157
Kjersti Ericsson
#84634
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Kjersti Ericsson is a Norwegian psychologist, criminologist, writer, poet and former politician. She is professor of criminology at the faculty of law of the University of Oslo. Ericsson obtained her cand.psychol. degree in 1969, and was a research assistant and lecturer at the department of psychology at the University of Oslo from 1969 to 1978. Since 1978, she has been employed with the department of criminology and sociology of law . She became an associate professor in 1981 and a professor in 1997.
Go to Profile#158
Nicole Leeper Piquero
#96004
Overall Influence
#159
Paul E. Tracy
#88440
Overall Influence
Paul E. Tracy is an American criminologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is also the editor-in-chief of Crime & Delinquency. His research interests focus on juvenile delinquency and criminal careers.
Go to Profile#160
Michael White
#104103
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Michael Douglas White is a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University, where he is also the associate director of the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety and director of the doctoral program in criminology and criminal justice. He is known for his research on the effects of police use of body-worn cameras. He produced a report for the United States Department of Justice summarizing the arguments for and against the use of such cameras.
Go to Profile#161
Gordon Hawkins
#96210
Overall Influence
1919 - 2004 (85 years)
Gordon Joseph Hawkins was an Australian criminologist. He served as a professor at the University of Sydney's Institute of Criminology from 1961 to 1984, and was the Institute's director from 1981 to 1985. After retiring in 1984, he served as a senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley's Earl Warren Legal Institute until 2001. From 1970 to 1999, he published twelve books, nine of which were co-authored with Berkeley professor Franklin Zimring. His first book, The Honest Politician's Guide to Crime Control, was co-authored by Norval Morris and published by the University of Chica...
Go to Profile#162
Matt Bishop
#138743
Overall Influence
#163
Angelos Dennis Keromytis
#138884
Overall Influence
#164
Peter Kirby Manning
#139033
Overall Influence
#165
Richard Felson
#47136
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Richard Felson is a professor of Crime, Law, and Justice and Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also adjunct professor of Sociology at State University of New York at Albany. Research on Aggression and Coercive Actions In 1994 Felson co-authored the controversial book "Violence, Aggression and Coercive Actions: A Social-Interactionist Perspective" with James Tedeschi. This book challenged the theory that rape was a crime motivated by an aggressive desire to dominate the victim. Felson and Tedeschi argued that sexual fulfillment was a motive of rapists.
Go to Profile#166
Anthea Hucklesby
#136667
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Anthea Hucklesby FAcSS FRSA is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Birmingham where she holds a joint appointment in Birmingham Law School and the School of Social Policy. She was Head of the School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham 2020–2022. She was a member of the Law School at the University of Leeds between 2003 and 2020 where she was latterly Pro-Dean for research and innovation in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce .
Go to Profile#167
Dennis Smith
#46760
Overall Influence
1940 - 2022 (82 years)
Dennis Smith was an American firefighter and author. He was the author of 16 books, the most notable of which is the memoir Report from Engine Co. 82, a chronicle of his career as a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department in a South Bronx firehouse from the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Smith served for 18 years as a New York City firefighter, from 1963 to 1981, and is a well-known advocate for firefighters in the United States. After 9/11, he chronicled the 57 days he spent in rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center collapse in a bestselling book, Report from Gro...
Go to Profile#168
Niamh Nic Daéid
#85111
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Niamh Nic Daéid is an Irish forensic scientist, and the Professor of Forensic Science and Director of Research at the University of Dundee. She earned a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from the Dublin Institute of Technology and Trinity College, Dublin, followed by a PhD in bio inorganic chemistry from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Go to Profile#169
Richard L. Berkowitz
#142144
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
#170
Gloria Laycock
#97434
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Gloria Laycock was the founding Director of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London , and ran UCL's Centre for Security & Crime Science. She is an internationally renowned expert in crime prevention, and especially situational approaches which seek to design out situations which provoke crime.
Go to Profile#171
Robert MacCoun
#92545
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Robert J. MacCoun is the James and Patricia Kowal Professor of Law at Stanford Law School., a Professor by courtesy in Stanford's Psychology Department, and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute. Trained as a social psychologist, he has published numerous studies on psychoactive drug use and policy, individual and group decision-making, distributive and procedural justice, social influence processes, and bias in the use and interpretation of research evidence by scientists, journalists and citizens.
Go to Profile#172
Daniel Mears
#134504
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
#173
Charis Kubrin
#61326
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Charis Elizabeth Kubrin is an American criminologist and Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine . Education and career After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2000, Kubrin taught at George Washington University for 11 years; she left George Washington University for UCI in the summer of 2011. In 2016, she and her UCI colleague Carroll Seron served as editors of a special issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science about prison realignment in California.
Go to Profile#174
Jeffery Ulmer
#123953
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Jeffery Todd Ulmer is a professor of sociology and criminology at Pennsylvania State University . He served as the associate head of the Department of Sociology and Criminology from 2013 to 2019. Education Ulmer received his B.A. from Susquehanna University in 1988, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Penn State in 1990 and 1993, respectively, all in sociology. He graduated from Springdale High School in Springdale, AR, in 1984.
Go to Profile#175
Joanna Rutkowska
#35083
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (43 years)
Joanna Rutkowska is a Polish computer security researcher, primarily known for her research on low-level security and stealth malware, and as founder of the Qubes OS security-focused desktop operating system.
Go to Profile#176
Denise Gottfredson
#88757
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Denise Claire Gottfredson is an American criminologist and professor in the department of criminal justice and criminology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an expert on school violence and juvenile delinquency. She is recognized for her research applying the techniques of program evaluation to certain crime prevention initiatives, such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education, the Strengthening Families Program, and the Baltimore City Drug Treatment Court. She has also researched the effects of school resource officers on schools, finding that such officers spend an average of about half of their time engaged in law enforcement activities.
Go to Profile#177
Gail Anderson
#131718
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Gail S. Anderson is a forensic entomologist, academic, and associate director of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. She is an instructor at the Canadian Police College, a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the Canadian Society of Forensic Science, as well as a member of the Canadian Identification Society and the International Association for Identification.
Go to Profile#178
Malcolm Mark. Feeley
#149934
Overall Influence
#179
Kim Jong Yang
#105579
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Kim Jong Yang is a South Korean police officer and former President of Interpol. Prior to his Interpol career, Kim was Commissioner of Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, the law enforcement agency for South Korea's most populous province. As a police chief, Kim took part in efforts to spread South Korean policing strategies to other nations, including the Philippines, through financial assistance and training programs.
Go to Profile#180
Joanne Belknap
#119628
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Joanne Elizabeth Belknap is an American criminologist and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Belknap was named a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology. She trained at Temple University's Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. She studies jail-to-community reentry and implementing college courses in prisons. She was awarded the 2009 Elizabeth D. Gee Memorial Lectureship Award, which recognizes efforts to advance women in academia, interdisciplinary scholarly contributions and distinguished teaching.
Go to Profile#181
Anthony Robert Beech
#150857
Overall Influence
#182
Randall Amster
#64886
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Randall Jay Amster is an American author, activist, and educator in areas including peace, ecology, homelessness, and anarchism. He is the co-director of the Environmental Studies program at Georgetown University, and writes for outlets ranging from academic journals to online news media.
Go to Profile#183
Alan Lizotte
#142134
Overall Influence
1948 - 2022 (74 years)
Alan Jeffrey Lizotte is an American criminologist and Distinguished Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany. Early life and education Lizotte grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he later recalled almost everyone he knew owning a gun. He served in the United States Navy from July 1966 to January 1970. His service included one tour on the USS Jouett in the Vietnam War, and one-and-a-half tours in the Inshore Undersea Warfare Group One, Unit 2, on land; he attained the rank of Second Class Petty Officer as a radioman before being discharged. He later received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Brown University in 1974, followed by a M.A.
Go to Profile#184
Christopher Uggen
#133040
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
#185
Shadd Maruna
#152676
Overall Influence
#186
Walther Parson
#154183
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
#187
Ken Pease
#118166
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Kenneth George Pease is a British forensic psychologist and criminologist. He is a visiting professor at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London, a visiting professor at the University of Loughborough and an honorary visiting fellow at the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research at the University of Manchester. Previous positions he has held include Head of School of Sociology and Social Policy at the Ulster Polytechnic from 1981 to 1983, professor of criminology at the University of Huddersfield , the University of Manchester , the head of the Home ...
Go to Profile#188
Franco Taroni
#155365
Overall Influence
#189
Anthony Doob
#110445
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Anthony Newcomb Doob is a Canadian criminologist and professor emeritus of criminology at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies of the University of Toronto. Early life and education Doob is the son of Leonard W. Doob, a longtime professor of psychology at Yale University who served as the director of overseas intelligence for the United States Office of War Information during World War II. Anthony Doob earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and a PhD in psychology from Stanford University.
Go to Profile#190
Richard T. Wright
#103247
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Richard T. Wright is an American criminologist. He is Board of Regent's Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at GSU from 2014–2018, and was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2009.
Go to Profile#191
Markus Jakobsson
#150965
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Markus Jakobsson is a computer security researcher, entrepreneur and writer, whose work is focused on the issue of digital security. Career Markus Jakobsson is currently Chief Scientist at Artema Labs, a company with the mission of disrupting and improving the crypto and NFT markets. Prior to his current role, he has been Chief Scientist at ByteDance; Chief of Security and Data Analytics at Amber Solutions, and Chief Scientist at Agari.
Go to Profile#192
Valeria Vegh Weis
#17642
Overall Influence
Valeria Vegh Weis is an Argentinean-German Author. She specializes in criminology, criminal law, international criminal law and transitional justice. Vegh Weis is a Research Fellow at Konstanz Universität Zukunftskolleg, where she focuses on the role of victims organizations to confront state crimes. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Buenos Aires University and Quilmes National University. She is the Vice President of the Instituto Latinoamericano de Criminología y Desarrollo Social . Vegh Weis won several awards, including the Critical Criminology of the Year Award by the American Society ...
Go to Profile#193
John H. Kramer
#80945
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
John H. Kramer is an American criminologist. He is an emeritus professor of sociology and criminology at Pennsylvania State University , where he was a professor from 1973 until his retirement in 2015. He also served as executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing from 1979 to 1998, and as staff director for the United States Sentencing Commission from 1996 to 1998.
Go to Profile#194
Wayne Osgood
#148283
Overall Influence
Donald Wayne Osgood is an American criminologist and professor emeritus of criminology and sociology at Pennsylvania State University. He has been a fellow of the American Society of Criminology since 2005, and he was the lead editor of their official journal, Criminology, from 2011 through 2017. He is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, since 2011.
Go to Profile#195
Clodoveo Ferri
#70767
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Clodoveo Ferri is an Italian researcher of clinical rheumatology, immunology and internal medicine. Since January 2003, Clodoveo Ferri has been a professor of rheumatology, Chief of the Chair of Rheumatology and director of the Postgraduate School of Rheumatology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Modena, Italy. A native of Cropani, a small town in Calabria, Italy, Clodoveo Ferri graduated cum laude from the University of Pisa and later specialized in internal medicine and rheumatology.
Go to Profile#196
Ralph B. Taylor
#159280
Overall Influence
#197
Donna M. Bishop
#139632
Overall Influence
Donna Marie Bishop is an American criminologist and emeritus professor at Northeastern University. Education and career Bishop received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany in 1982. She began working as a full professor at Northeastern in 1999. Prior to joining the faculty of Northeastern, she taught for 18 years in the state university system in Florida, including 13 years at the University of Florida Center for Studies in Criminology and Law, and 5 years at the University of Central Florida Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies., including the University of Ce...
Go to Profile#198
Shlomo Argamon
#35316
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Shlomo Argamon is an American/Israeli computer scientist and forensic linguist. He is currently the chair of the computer science department as well as a tenured professor of computer science and interim director of the Active Computational Thinking Center at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. He founded their Master of Data Science program in 2013.
Go to Profile#199
Fabio Martinelli
#163414
Overall Influence
#200
John Hipp
#163791
Overall Influence
John Robert Hipp is an American criminologist and professor in the department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine . He is also the co-director, with Charis Kubrin, of the Irvine Lab for the Study of Space and Crime , as well as the director of UC Irvine's Metropolitan Futures Initiative. He has conducted multiple studies of unemployment and crime rates in and around Irvine, California, finding remarkably low rates of both there. His research has also shown that crime in Los Angeles tends to be intraracial, despite the fact that several exceptions received co...
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