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).
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List of the most influential people in Criminology,
#101
Anthony Robert Beech
#150857
Overall Influence
#102
Daniel Mears
#134504
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
#103
Shadd Maruna
#152676
Overall Influence
#104
Joanna Shapland
#86247
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Joanna Shapland was born in 1950. She earned her B.A. from St. Hilda’s College, which was promoted to an M.A. She went on to earn a diploma in criminology from Darwin College before earning a PhD from Wolfson College. She has spent her career studying victimology and victimisation, exploring the restorative justice approaches employed by police officers and crime reduction programs, and engaging in longitudinal research into the life choices of adult offenders in their early twenties. Her efforts have yielded critically important insights into effective practices for restorative justice. She h...
Go to Profile#105
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#106
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#107
Christopher Uggen
#133040
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
#108
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#109
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#110
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#111
Ralph B. Taylor
#159280
Overall Influence
#112
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#113
Nicole Leeper Piquero
#96004
Overall Influence
#114
Randy Borum
#41637
Overall Influence
Randy Borum is a professor and coordinator of strategy and intelligence studies in the school of information at the University of South Florida and has taught at USF since 1999. He is author/coauthor of approximately 160 professional publications, has worked with three Directors of National Intelligence on the Intelligence Science Board , served on the Defense Science Board Task Force on Understanding Human Dynamics, and is an instructor with the Bureau of Justice Assistance State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Programs for Investigations and Intelligence.
Go to Profile#115
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#116
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#117
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#118
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#119
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...
Go to Profile#120
Etannibi Alemika
#17069
Overall Influence
Etannibi Alemika is a professor of Criminology and the Sociology of Law at the University of Jos. In August 2015, he was one of seven individuals appointed to a newly formed anti-corruption board organized by President Muhammadu Buhari. His most widely cited article is titled Policing and Perceptions of Police in Nigeria, which was published in 1988.
Go to Profile#121
Anastasia Powell
#136019
Overall Influence
Anastasia Powell is a feminist criminologist at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Career Powell gained her PhD in criminology from the University of Melbourne in 2008 and has been a director of Our Watch since 2016 . Her doctoral research was published in the 2010 book Sex, Power and Consent: Youth Culture and the Unwritten Rules by Cambridge University Press. Powell's research specialises in policy and prevention concerning men's violence against women, with a particular focus on sexual violence and technology-facilitated abuse.
Go to Profile#122
Kerry Carrington
#69564
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Kerry Lyn Carrington is an Australian criminologist, and an adjunct professor at the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast . She formerly served as head of the QUT School of Justice for 11 years from 2009 to 2021. She was editor-in-chief of the International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. She is known for her work on gender and violence, feminist criminology, southern criminology, youth justice and girls' violence, and global justice and human rights.
Go to Profile#123
David Klinger
#90046
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
David Ames Klinger is an American criminologist and former police officer. He is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, as well as a senior research fellow at the Police Foundation.
Go to Profile#124
Graham Farrell
#118272
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Graham Farrell is a British criminologist who is Professor of International and Comparative Criminology at the University of Leeds School of Law. Education and career Farrell received his BSc from the University of Surrey and his PhD from the University of Manchester. He worked at the University of Oxford's Centre for Criminological Research before joining the United Nations in the 1990s. He then taught at Loughborough University and at Simon Fraser University, where he was appointed Professor in Environmental Criminology in 2013. He joined the University of Leeds in 2015.
Go to Profile#125
Thomas Gabor
#160909
Overall Influence
Thomas Gabor is a Canadian criminologist who was a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa for thirty years; since his retirement, he has worked as a consultant on crime and related issues. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1983. As of January 2017, he lived in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Go to Profile#126
David H. Bayley
#70447
Overall Influence
1933 - 2020 (87 years)
David H. Bayley was an American political scientist who taught at the University of Denver and the State University of New York at Albany. He was dean of SUNY Albany's School of Criminal Justice from 1995-2004 and was Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He authored 18 books, and he became a "policing research pioneer." Bayley was described in 2015 as “America’s principal, most respected and longest serving policing expert at-large and the world’s preeminent scholar of international policing studies.”
Go to Profile#127
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#128
David McDowall
#76873
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
David McDowall is an American criminologist and distinguished teaching professor in the School of Criminal Justice at University at Albany, SUNY, where he is also co-director of the Violence Research Group. Educated at Portland State University and Northwestern University, he taught at the University of Maryland, College Park from 1990 until joining the University at Albany in 1996. He has published a number of studies pertaining to gun violence in the United States.
Go to Profile#129
Lee E. Ross
#101074
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Lee E. Ross is an African-American criminologist and author of articles and books that address issues of domestic violence and topics related to race, crime, and justice. Life Ross was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, but his parents eventually relocated to Hempstead, New York. Upon graduating Hempstead High School, he attended Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York. There, he earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice before receiving the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at Rutgers University where he earned his masters and doctorate in criminology. Ross also spent seven years as a federal law enforcement officer with the United States Customs Service.
Go to Profile#130
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#131
Miren Ortubay Fuentes
#70070
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Miren Ortubay Fuentes is a Spanish lawyer and criminologist, as well as a professor at the University of the Basque Country , specializing in gender-related violence and prisoners' rights. Biography Ortubay Fuentes graduated in law from the University of Deusto in 1980, and holds a Ph.D. in law from the same university. Her 1994 doctoral thesis was entitled, . She holds a diploma in Criminology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and did postgraduate studies in criminology at the university of Louvain-la-Neuve .
Go to Profile#132
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#133
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#134
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#135
William Doerner
#97796
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
William G. Doerner is a professor in the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University. His research has covered topics such as criminal justice, delinquency, law enforcement, police management and procedures, and victimology.
Go to Profile#136
Alice Yotopoulos-Marangopoulos
#107878
Overall Influence
1917 - 2018 (101 years)
Alice Yotopoulos-Marangopoulos was a Greek lawyer and criminologist. Career Born Aliki Giotopoulou , the daughter of a lawyer, she served as Professor of Criminology, President of the Hellenic Society of Criminology, board member of the International Society of Criminology, lawyer at the Supreme Court, Vice President of the Bar Association of Athens, President of the Panteion University, President of the National Commission for Human Rights and as the 10th President of the International Alliance of Women . She was founder and President of the Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights.
Go to Profile#137
Carlisle Moody
#101877
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Carlisle E. Moody is an American economist, criminologist, and professor of economics at the College of William & Mary. Education Moody received his B.A. from Colby College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, all in economics.
Go to Profile#138
Joseph Donnermeyer
#80129
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Joseph F. Donnermeyer is a Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University, School of Environment and Natural Resources. His main subject is rural criminology. He has also a focus on Amish studies, especially on change in Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities.
Go to Profile#139
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#140
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#141
Tracey McIntosh
#91812
Overall Influence
Tracey Kathleen Dorothy McIntosh is a New Zealand sociology and criminology academic. She is of Māori descent and is currently a Professor of Indigenous Studies and Co-Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa at the University of Auckland.
Go to Profile#142
David M. Kennedy
#31393
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
David M. Kennedy is a criminologist, professor, action researcher, and author specializing in crime prevention among inner city gangs, especially in the prevention of violent acts among street gangs. Kennedy developed the Operation Ceasefire group violence intervention in Boston in the 1990s and the High Point Model drug market intervention in High Point, North Carolina, in 2003, which have proven to reduce violence and eliminate overt drug markets in jurisdictions around the United States. He founded the National Network for Safe Communities in 2009 to support cities using these and related ...
Go to Profile#143
Janet Lauritsen
#88736
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Janet Lynn Lauritsen is an American criminologist and the Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Education and career Dr. Lauritsen received her B.A. , M.A. , and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After serving as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois , she joined the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis as an Assistant Professor in 1990. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1996 as well as to full Professor in 2002.
Go to Profile#144
Nestor Courakis
#40639
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Nestor Courakis is Emeritus Professor of Criminology and Penology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Law and a full-time Professor at the University of Nicosia. Born May 21, 1947 in Athens he attended the Law Faculty, University of Athens , Law Faculty, University of Freiburg/Germany , Law Faculty, Panthéon-Assas University , Paris Institute of Criminology ; research work at Max-Planck Institute of Foreign and International Criminal Law 1978-80.
Go to Profile#145
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#146
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#147
Phil A. Silva
#174279
Overall Influence
#148
Keith Soothill
#130442
Overall Influence
1941 - 2014 (73 years)
Keith Leonard Soothill was a British criminologist, social researcher and academic. He was Professor of Social Research at Lancaster University from 1990 until he retired in 2006. Soothill was born in Whetstone, London, on 25 March 1941; his father, a salesman, was a WEA tutor. He attended King's College School, Wimbledon, on a scholarship and then worked in advertising before completed a degree in philosophy and psychology at the University of Exeter, graduating in 1965.
Go to Profile#149
William Pridemore
#159777
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
William Alex Pridemore is an American criminologist who is a professor in, and the dean of, the University at Albany, SUNY's School of Criminal Justice. He is also an affiliate faculty member at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
Go to Profile#150
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...
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