Search People Result | Academic Influence

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.

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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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School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Criminology,

#151

Ronald Weitzer

#36087

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Ronald Weitzer is an American sociologist specializing in criminology and a professor at George Washington University, known for his publications on police-minority relations and on the sex industry.

#152

Thomas Blomberg

Thomas Blomberg

#138169

Overall Influence

Thomas G. Blomberg is an American criminologist. He is an expert in criminology research and public policy; delinquency, education and crime desistance; penology and social control; and victim services. He is currently the Dean, Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology, and the executive director of the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research at the Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

#153

Ben Bowling

#64546

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Benjamin Bowling is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at King's College London, an author and an honorary psychotherapist. He is a recipient of the Radzinowicz Memorial Prize awarded for the best article in the British Journal of Criminology in 1999. Bowling was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2022.

#154

Allen Liska

#111248

Overall Influence

1940 - 1998 (58 years)

Allen Erwin Liska was an American sociologist and criminologist. He was a full professor at the University at Albany, SUNY from 1982 until his death in 1998, having originally joined the faculty there in 1979. From 1985 to 1988, he was the chair of the Department of Sociology there. He supervised more Ph.D. students than any other faculty member in the University at Albany, SUNY's sociology department. During his career, he also served as chair of the American Sociological Association's Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance. He was named a fellow of the American Society of Criminology in November 1998.

#155

Mona Lynch

#176040

Overall Influence

Mona Pauline Lynch is an American criminologist and Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and Law at the University of California, Irvine, where she is also co-director of the Center in Law, Society and Culture.

#156

Darnell Hawkins

#91161

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Darnell Felix Hawkins is an American sociologist and criminologist. He is emeritus professor of African-American studies, sociology, and criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is known for his research on racial differences in crime, the ways in which the law is applied differently across races, and violence prevention. This includes research on urban violence and racial profiling.

#157

Holger Ziegler

#118329

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Holger Ziegler is a professor of social work at the Faculty of Education at Bielefeld University. He was a member of the Research Training Group Youth Welfare and Social Services in Transition of the German Research Foundation , Fellow at the Department of Criminology at Keele University and Assistant Professor of Special Education at Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster. He has been a member of the academic advisory board of the German Soccer League since 2010; of the North Rhine-Westphalia research school Education and Capability and member of the Human Development and Capability Ass...

#158

Winifred Cavenagh

#85974

Overall Influence

1908 - 2004 (96 years)

Winifred Elizabeth Cavenagh was a British criminologist, social scientist, and academic. She joined the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in social studies in 1946 and was made Professor of Social Administration and Criminology in 1972: she retired from academia in 1976 and was appointed professor emeritus. Outside of her university career, she served as a local magistrate, on numerous boards, and, after study law and qualifying, worked as a barrister.

#159

Charles Wellford

#162645

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Charles Franklin Wellford is an American criminologist, emeritus professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland–College Park. He previously served as the department's chair. In 1996, the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice established the Charles Wellford Fellowship in his honor. He was chair of the University of Maryland's Athletic Council from 1995 to 2008. He was the president of the American Society of Criminology during 1995–96. In addition he was the research director for the National Issues Center at Westinghouse Corporation, d...

#160

M. Dwayne Smith

#145434

Overall Influence

M. Dwayne Smith is an American criminologist and professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, where he is also the senior vice provost and Dean of the Office of Graduate Studies. He is the founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal Homicide Studies, which he edited from 1996 to 2001. From 2000 to 2005, he was the chair of the University of South Florida's Department of Criminology. He is an expert on mass murderers and serial killers, and has also researched jury decisions in death penalty cases in North Carolina, as well as other criminological topics.

#161

Abd al-Wahhab Hawmad

#75718

Overall Influence

1915 - 2002 (87 years)

Abd al-Wahhab Hawmad was a Syrian politician, lawyer, criminologist and professor. Background Hawmad was born to father Mahmoud Hawmad in Aleppo, where he was raised, in 1915. Before his entry into politics, Hawmad worked as a lawyer, specializing in criminology. He graduated from the University of Paris with a law doctorate and a degree in criminal justice. He also studied Arabic literature at the university. When he returned to Syria, Hawmad also worked as a professor at the University of Damascus.

#162

Lisa Stolzenberg

#148839

Overall Influence

Lisa Stolzenberg is an American criminologist. She is a professor in, and chair of, the Department of Criminal Justice at Florida International University . Education and career Stolzenberg attended the University of Florida, where she received her B.S. in criminal justice in 1985. She went on to receive her M.S. and Ph.D. in criminology from Florida State University in 1986 and 1993, respectively. Before joining FIU, she held multiple other positions, including professor of public policy at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne.

#163

Neal Hazel

#76037

Overall Influence

Neal Hazel is a British criminologist and social policy analyst who is best known for his research on youth justice and on family support. He is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Salford and is the former Her Majesty's Deputy Chief Inspector of Probation for England and Wales.

#164

Donald A. Andrews

#171927

Overall Influence

1941 - 2010 (69 years)

Donald Arthur Andrews was a Canadian correctional psychologist and criminologist who taught at Carleton University, where he was a founding member of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is recognized for having criticized Robert Martinson's influential paper concluding that "nothing works" in correctional treatment. He also helped to advance the technique of risk assessment to better predict the chance of recidivism among offenders. He is credited with coining the terms "criminogenic needs" and "risk-need-responsivity", both of which have since been used and studied extensiv...

#165

Eileen Baldry

#124670

Overall Influence

Eileen Baldry is an Australian criminologist and social justice advocate. She is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Equity Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Criminology at the University of New South Wales .

#166

Roderic Broadhurst

#138099

Overall Influence

Roderic Broadhurst is a criminal justice practitioner, academic, and author. He is an Emeritus Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance and Fellow of the Research School of Asian and the Pacific at the Australian National University .

#167

Gary Mauser

#79454

Overall Influence

Gary A. Mauser is a Canadian criminologist and emeritus professor in the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Education Mauser received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine in 1970, both in psychology.

#168

Andrew Silke

#148773

Overall Influence

Andrew Silke holds a chair in Terrorism, Risk and Resilience at Cranfield University's Forensic Institute. Previously, he was the Head of Criminology and the Programme Director for Terrorism Studies at the University of East London.

#169

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.

#170

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.

#171

Mark Kleiman

#30919

Overall Influence

1951 - 2019 (68 years)

Mark Albert Robert Kleiman was an American professor, author, and blogger who dealt with issues of drug and criminal justice policy. A professor of public policy for many years at UCLA, Kleiman in 2015 became the director of the Crime and Justice Program at New York University's Marron Institute of Urban Management. Kleiman was an expert in the field of crime and drug policy and authored several books in the field.

#172

Michael D. Maltz

#151335

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Michael D. Maltz is an American electrical engineer, criminologist and Emeritus Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago in criminal justice, and adjunct professor and researcher at Ohio State University.

#173

James Lynch

#177442

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

James Patrick Lynch is an American criminologist and professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Education Lynch graduated from Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1967, after which he received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Wesleyan University in 1971. He later received a masters' and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1975 and 1983, respectively.

#174

Jo Phoenix

#116545

Overall Influence

Jo Phoenix is an author and professor of Criminology in the United Kingdom. Phoenix writes about the policies and laws which surround various sexual activities, and the social conditions which underpin them. She is known for her gender critical views, having founded the Gender Critical Research Network, and has sued her employer after they refused to act when her colleagues subjected her to sustained harassment and bullying.

#175

Ramiro Martinez Jr.

#172883

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Ramiro Martinez Jr. is an American criminologist. He is a professor at Northeastern University, in both the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

#176

Karen F. Parker

#114718

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Karen Faye Parker is an American sociologist and criminologist known for her research on urban violence. She is a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Delaware, where she has worked since 2007. She has also been a research associate at the University of Michigan's National Poverty Center since 2007, and was formerly a professor at the University of Florida before joining the faculty of the University of Delaware.

#177

Tomislav Kovandzic

#181121

Overall Influence

Tomislav Victor Kovandzic is an American criminologist and professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. Career Before joining the faculty of the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007, he was an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1998 to 2005, and an associate professor there from 2005 to 2007. His research focuses on gun control and research methods in criminology. He has also studied the effects of three-strikes laws, right-to-carry gun laws, and increased police presence on crime rates.

#178

Kitty Calavita

#171075

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Kitty C. Calavita is an American criminologist, focusing in sociology of law, criminology, immigration, criminal justice and inequality, currently the Chancellor's Professor Emerita at University of California, Irvine and an Elected Fellow of the American Political and Social Science Society.

#179

Walter DeKeseredy

#177132

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Walter Steven DeKeseredy is the Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences at West Virginia University, where he is also director of the Research Center on Violence and professor of sociology.

#180

Colin Loftin

#172163

Overall Influence

Colin Loftin is an American criminologist and Distinguished Professor at the University at Albany School of Criminal Justice. At the University at Albany, he is also the co-director of the Violence Research Group, along with David McDowall.

#181

John Worrall

#178068

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

John Lampert Worrall is a professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas's School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. He is known for his research on crime control, policing, and criminal courtss. He is the editor-in-chief of Police Quarterly.

#182

Robin Engel

#175048

Overall Influence

Robin Shepard Engel is an American criminologist and professor in the College of Education Criminal Justice and Human Services at the University of Cincinnati . She is also UC's Vice President for Safety & Reform and the director of the IACP/UC Center for Police Research and Policy, a collaboration between UC and the International Association of Chiefs of Police . She is also the former director of UC's Institute of Crime Science. She became UC's first Vice President for Safety & Reform in 2015, when the university created the position in response to the shooting of Samuel DuBose by a UC police officer.

#183

Nicole Westmarland

Nicole Westmarland

#169510

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (47 years)

#184

Anne Piehl

#93536

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Anne Morrison Piehl is an American economist and criminologist. She is a professor of economics at Rutgers University, the director of Rutgers' Program in Criminal Justice, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She joined Rutgers as an associate professor in 2005, and became a full professor there in 2012. Also in 2012, she became a fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. In 2020, she was named to the James Cullen Chair in Economics, where she will serve a five-year term. She served on the New Jersey Committee on Government Efficiency and Reform Correct...

#185

Edwin Bakker

#82327

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Edwin Bakker is head of the knowledge and research department of the Netherlands Police Academy and professor of Terrorism Studies at Leiden University. Biography Bakker was born on 20 October 1967 in Leiden, in the Netherlands.

#186

Eric Baumer

#185679

Overall Influence

Eric Paul Baumer is an American criminologist and Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Penn State University, where he is also head of the Department of Sociology and Criminology. With Wayne Osgood and Rosemary Gartner, he is the co-editor of the Journal of Criminology, the official Journal of the American Society of Criminology . He was the vice president of the ASC from 2014 to 2015, and became an ASC fellow in 2016.

#187

David Indermaur

#40042

Overall Influence

David Indermaur is an Australian clinical psychologist, criminologist, writer, and academic. He is a research associate professor at the University of Western Australia's Crime Research Centre. Education and career Indermaur graduated from the University of Western Australia, obtaining a masters in clinical psychology in 1979 and a Doctor of Law in 1997. In 1976 he worked as a psychologist for prisoners in Western Australia, researching public views on punishment for crimes and court sentencing. In the 1980s and 1990s Indermaur worked on criminal investigations involving drugs and violent crime.

#188

Don Gottfredson

#90852

Overall Influence

1926 - 2002 (76 years)

Don Martin Gottfredson was an American criminologist who was the founding dean of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. At the time of his death in 2002, he was the Richard J. Hughes Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice at Rutgers. The Criminal Justice Library at Rutgers was renamed the Don M. Gottfredson Library of Criminal Justice in his memory in 2003.

#189

John Goldkamp

#171290

Overall Influence

1947 - 2012 (65 years)

John S. Goldkamp was an American criminologist who was a professor at Temple University for over 25 years. From 1979 to 1983, and again from 2004 to 2010, he was the chair of the department of criminal justice at Temple.

#190

Alba Zaluar

#36935

Overall Influence

1942 - 2019 (77 years)

Alba Maria Zaluar was a Brazilian anthropologist, with emphases in urban anthropology and in anthropology of violence. In 1984, she obtained her PhD in social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

#191

Herschel Prins

#173755

Overall Influence

1928 - 2016 (88 years)

Herschel Albert Prins was a British professor of criminology. His career spanned over 60 years in work pertaining to forensic psychiatry, and his appointments included positions at the universities of Leeds, Loughborough, Leicester and Birmingham. His roles included HM probation inspectorate, parole board engagement, and involvement in mental health review tribunals and the mental health act commission. He worked with people with malicious activity, antisocial and disinhibited behaviour, unusual sexual deviations and people who behaved dangerously.

#192

Penny Green

#190309

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

#193

Norman White

#187076

Overall Influence

1953 - 2017 (64 years)

Norman Anthony White was an American criminologist who taught at Saint Louis University . Early life and education White was born on February 20, 1953, in New York City, where he grew up in public housing in upper Manhattan. He attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, where he received a bachelor's degree and a Master of Public Administration. He went on to receive another master's degree, followed by a doctorate, from the State University of New York at Albany.

#194

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 .

#195

Emma Katz

#184468

Overall Influence

Emma Katz is a UK-based domestic violence researcher. Katz has contributed to policy and popular cultural discussion on coercive control, in particular in the UK, the United States, and Australia. Policy Katz was a member of the expert advisory panel for Research England's Domestic Abuse Policy Guidance for UK Universities 2021.

#196

J. C. Barnes

#191254

Overall Influence

#197

Paul Wilson

#189320

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Paul Richard Wilson is a New Zealand-born Australian social scientist. He was convicted and jailed in 2016 for historical sex offences. Biography Wilson was born in New Zealand. He holds both B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Canterbury, and an earned Ph.D. from the University of Queensland.

#198

Benjamin Perrin

Benjamin Perrin

#47348

Overall Influence

Benjamin Perrin is a professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Human trafficking opponent Perrin is involved with human trafficking research and activism, and wrote the 2010 book Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking. This book deals extensively with a gang of pimps called North Preston's Finest and includes an account of the disappearance of Jessie Foster. Perrin received a George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature nomination for having written this book. Perrin helped Joy Smith develop the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.

#199

Donna M. Hughes

Donna M. Hughes

#142813

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Donna M. Hughes is an American academic and feminist who chairs the women's studies department at the University of Rhode Island. Her research concerns prostitution and human trafficking; she was a prominent supporter of the campaign to end prostitution in Rhode Island, and has testified on these issues before several national legislative bodies. She sits on the editorial board of Sexualization, Media, and Society, a journal examining the impact of sexualized media.

#200

Daniel Georges-Abeyie

#60890

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Daniel Earl Georges-Abeyie is an American criminologist and professor in the Barbara Jordan - Mickey Leland School Of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. Early life and education Born in New York City, Georges-Abeyie is of West Indian and African American ancestry. His father was from the island of Tortola in the British West Indies, and his mother was a U.S. citizen from the Atlantic coast in the South. Both of his parents were escaped slaves, and his last name refers to both the plantation that his father's ancestor escaped from and the Fante word meaning "return when the time is right" .

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