David L. Weisburd

Hebrew University of Jerusalem | HUJI · Institute of Criminology, Department of Criminology, Law and Society

Objectives Test the effects of police compliance with the restrictions on their authority embedded in Social Contract Theory (SCT) on police legitimacy, satisfaction with the police, and willingness to obey police officers. Methods A two-stage vignette experiment. In the first, 1356 participants were randomly assigned to one of four study conditio...

We use data on street segments in Tel Aviv-Yafo to examine whether general or specific crime factors are key to understanding crime rates on street segments. We pose two questions. (1) What causal factors explain the property and violent crimes at the same locations? (2) What are the differences and similarities between the risk factors of the two...

Evidence-based policing (EBP) has become a key perspective for practitioners and researchers concerned with the future of policing. This volume provides both a review of where evidence-based policing stands today and a consideration of emerging trends and ideas likely to be important in the future. It includes comparative and international contribu...

Evidence-based policing (EBP) has become a key perspective for practitioners and researchers concerned with the future of policing. This volume provides both a review of where evidence-based policing stands today and a consideration of emerging trends and ideas likely to be important in the future. It includes comparative and international contribu...

Evidence-based policing (EBP) has become a key perspective for practitioners and researchers concerned with the future of policing. This volume provides both a review of where evidence-based policing stands today and a consideration of emerging trends and ideas likely to be important in the future. It includes comparative and international contribu...

Background Most national counter‐radicalization strategies identify the media, and particularly the Internet as key sources of risk for radicalization. However, the magnitude of the relationships between different types of media usage and radicalization remains unknown. Additionally, whether Internet‐related risk factors do indeed have greater impa...

Objectives Prior meta analyses of hot spots policing show that the approach reduces crime, but report relatively small mean effect sizes based on Cohen’s d. The natural logarithm of the relative incidence rate ratio (log RIRR) has been suggested as a more suitable effect size metric for place-based studies that report crime outcomes as count data....

Research Summary This study uses agent-based models (ABMs) to compare the impacts of three different types of interventions targeting recruitment to terrorism—community workers at community centers; community-oriented policing; and an employment program for high-risk agents. The first two programs are social interventions that focus on de-radicaliz...

In this study we sought to identify whether risk and protective factors for radicalization can be classed as ‘universal’ factors or whether they have heterogeneous cross-regional effects. Specifically, we sought to identify whether there were factors which displayed significantly different effects in European contexts compared to other democratic c...

מטרות: מטרת המחקר הנוכחי היא לבחון אם לארבע תוכניות החינוך הפועלות בשירות בתי הסוהר אותה השפעה על שיעור המועדות בקרב אסירים בעלי היסטוריה פלילית ועל זה שבקרב אסירים ללא היסטוריה פלילית. ממחקרים קודמים עולה כי אסירים בעלי עבר פלילי עשיר הנחשבים למצויים בסיכון גבוה למועדות מפיקים את התועלת הרבה ביותר מתוכניות המכילות מרכיב טיפול קוגניטיבי- התנהגותי....

Objectives Despite popular notions of “filter bubbles” and “echo chambers” contributing to radicalization, little evidence exists to support these hypotheses. However, social structure social learning theory would suggest a hereto untested interaction effect. MethodologyAn RCT of new Twitter users in which participants were randomly assigned to a t...

Background Two of the most central questions in radicalization research are, (1) why do some individuals radicalize when most of those from the same groups or exposed to similar conditions do not? and (2) why do radicalized individuals turn to radical violence while the majority remain inert? It has been suggested that the answer to both questions...

“Procedural justice” (PJ) has traditionally been thought of as an intragroup model, characterizing interpersonal interactions between police officers and specific individuals. O’Brien et al. recently proposed that PJ is also a useful framework for examining intergroup dynamics, and can thus be used to typify interactions between the police and comm...

Objectives Despite the prevalence of religious-oriented rehabilitation programs, few studies have assessed the effects of these programs on recidivism. Prior studies have generally focused on Christian-based programs in the USA and also suffer from a range of methodological problems, making it difficult to draw sound conclusions. The current study...

Objectives This article summarizes key points made in a panel at the American Society of Criminology (ASC) meeting in Atlanta in November 2018, entitled “20th Anniversary of the Academy of Experimental Criminology (AEC): Looking Back and Forward,” organized by Friedrich Lösel as the AEC president. Method Seven (current and former) presidents of AE...

Objectives The number of individuals incarcerated for terrorism offences in the West has grown considerably in recent years. However, unlike the extensive literature on recidivism for ordinary criminal offenders, little is known about recidivism for terrorism offenders. Given that many terrorism offenders are to be released in the coming years, the...

Objectives This systematic review sought to collate and synthesize the risk and protective factors for different outcomes of radicalization. We aimed to firstly quantify the effects of all factors for which rigorous empirical data exists, and secondly, to differentiate between factors related to radical attitudes, intention, and behaviors. The goal...

Background Herman Goldstein developed problem‐oriented policing (POP) to focus police on more proactively addressing chronic problems, rather than using traditional reactive efforts. POP has been utilized to target a wide range of problems and has become commonly used in agencies across the United States and the world, although implementation is of...

Objectives While block randomized designs have become more common in place-based policing studies, there has been relatively little discussion of the assumptions employed and their implications for statistical analysis. Our paper seeks to illustrate these assumptions, and controversy regarding statistical approaches, in the context of one of the fi...

Background: Religion with its religious institutions has played a key role in shaping punishment and rehabilitation of offenders throughout history. The aim of these programs is to transform a person spiritually and lead them to intrapersonal changes on the religious level by prompting repentance or the reaffirmation of one's faith. Objectives: We...

This current qualitative study analyzed treatment-staff perceptions of the advantages and weaknesses of Israeli’s primary prison-based drug rehabilitation program, as implemented in Hermon Prison in Israel. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 social workers and recovery mentors who worked as therapists in Hermon Prison during the rese...

מטרת המחקר הנוכחי היא לבחון האם תכנית השיקום הקבוצתי הפועלת בשרות בתי הסוהר, ואשר נמצאה זה מכבר יעילה בהפחתת שיעורי הרצידיביזם, משפיעה באפו שווה על אסירים יהודים וערבים. בתכנית רב-ממדית זו, האסירים החיים במסגרת של קהילה טיפולית יוצאים לעבוד מחוץ לכתלי הכלא בשעות היום ועם חזרתם משתתפים בקבוצות טיפוליות שונות וכן עוברים טיפול פרטני. הנתונים אודות האס...

This volume provides insights on how recruitment patterns develop for two related types of criminal networks: organized crime and terrorism. It specifically explores the social, situational, psychological, and economic drivers of recruitment. Although organized crime networks and terrorism networks can differ in underlying goals and motivations, th...

PROTON D5.1 presents two agent-based models (ABMs), one on recruitment in organised crime network and the other on radicalisation and terrorist recruitment. The report presents each model in sequence, addressing the design of the models including their theoretical framework, state of the art, and model overview. It then outlines the calibration, va...

Similar to concentrations of crime, mental health calls have been found to concentrate at a small number of places, but few have considered the context of places where mental health calls occur. The current study examines the influence of the physical and social context of street segments, particularly the role of service providers, land use featur...

This article summarizes key points made in a session at the American Society of Criminology meeting in Philadelphia in November 2017, entitled “The replication issue in science and its relevance for criminology”, organized by Friedrich Lösel and Robert F. Boruch. In turn, this session was inspired by Friedrich Lösel’s (2018) article in this journal...

This paper provides a summary of our report for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on proactive policing. We find that there is sufficient scientific evidence to support the adoption of many proactive policing practices if the primary goal is to reduce crime, though the evidence base generally does not provide long-term or...

Studies have identified that police officers often support and value evidence-based policing (EBP), but nevertheless prefer relying on experience when making decisions. Yet, policing scholars have paid little attention to the generality of this proclivity, the psychological mechanisms behind it, or to its implications for implementing EBP. The pres...

In this article, we seek to identify whether the relationship between health disparities and crime occurs at a micro-geographic level. Do hot spot streets evidence much higher levels of mental and physical illness than streets with little crime? Are residents of crime hot spots more likely to have health problems that interfere with their normal da...

There is a growing recognition of the importance of micro-geographic areas in the generation of crime problems. While many studies show that crime is heavily concentrated at crime hot spots, scholars have only begun to examine how living in such places affects human development. We point to an unexplored component of the relationship between living...

קרימינולוגיה ישראלית, כרך ח המאמר הנוכחי מתאר את החלק האיכותני מתוך מחקר הערכה משולב כמותי ואיכותני של תוכנית הטיפול באסירים שהורשעו בעבירות אלימות במשפחה. מאמר זה מתאר את תפיסות אנשי הצוות הטיפולי והניהולי כלפי תוכנית הטיפול המרכזית בעברייני אלימות במשפחה הפועלת במסגרת מחלקת "בית התקווה" בכלא חרמון. מטרת המחקר האיכותני הייתה לזהות על פי תפיסות הו...

Research Summary Taking advantage of a large residential survey that was ongoing in Baltimore, Maryland, during the riots surrounding the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, in this study, we examined changes in attitudes of procedural justice and police legitimacy before and after the events occurred. We found little change in measures of obligation to...

We identify all property crimes that occur at shops or malls in Tel Aviv-Yafo between 1990 and 2010. We ask whether the “law of crime concentration” applies to shopping crime. Our answer overall, is that studying this specific crime category provides general confirmation of the research that has been carried out on more general crime categories. Bu...

In disadvantaged neighborhoods, prior research has found reduced social cohesion and less willingness among residents to address disruptive behaviors and violations of social norms. This deficiency is commonly associated with higher levels of disorder and crime. Therefore, recent scholarship has begun to consider whether police can help foster coll...

Dieser Beitrag zeigt die Notwendigkeit von randomisierten Experimenten auf, die die überzeugendsten Evaluationen zur Wirkung von kriminalpräventiven Bemühungen darstellen. Er diskutiert die Grenzen nicht-experimenteller Ansätze bei Wirkungsuntersuchungen kriminalpräventiver Interventionen bevor er auf die statistischen Vorteile randomisierter Exper...

There has been a growing trend in recent years towards the adoption of evidence-based policy in a variety of fields, including criminal justice. The purpose of evidence-based policy is to guide the activities of organisations based on scientifically verified facts, enabling the development of effective and efficient policies. In this article, we in...

This study explores the relationship between mental health and place at microgeographic units of analysis. We examine self-reported symptomology for depression and PTSD for 2,724 survey respondents interviewed in three types of randomly selected street segments: violent crime hot spots, cool spots, and cold spots. We find that the mean symptomology...

The August Vollmer Award Address is intended to focus on contributions to justice and on the recipient's research and policy experiences. This contribution begins with the recipient recapping his personal journey to recognizing hot spots of crime and their importance for prevention. He then goes on to summarize the “law of crime concentration” and...

Research Summary By drawing from psychology and economics, we present an experimental evaluation of a procedural justice training program designed to “slow down” police officers’ thought processes during citizen encounters. We find that officers who were randomly assigned to participate in training were as engaged in the community as similarly situ...

Research Summary Focused deterrence strategies are increasingly being applied to prevent and control gang and group‐involved violence, overt drug markets, and individual repeat offenders. Our updated examination of the effects of focused deterrence strategies on crime followed the systematic review protocols and conventions of the Campbell Collabor...

בבתי הכלא בישראל פועלות כמה תכניות לגמילה מסמים ומאלכוהול, שאחת ממטרותיהן היא להפחית את ההסתברות שאסירים מכורים ישובו לאחר שחרורם למעגל ההתמכרות ולמעורבות בפשיעה. מחקר זה בוחן את יעילותן של ארבע תכניות גמילה המיושמות בשירות בתי הסוהר (להלן שב"ס): מחלקת הגמילה מסמים בכלא חרמון, מחלקת הגמילה מאלכוהול בכלא חרמון, תכניות מג"ש (מרכז גמילה ושיקום) לגמילה...

This qualitative study is part of a mixed methods research project that examined the effectiveness of the primary rehabilitation program for domestic violence offenders in the Israeli Prison Services—the “House of Hope.” The quantitative part of the study showed that the “House of Hope” program was effective in reducing recidivism among participati...

A quasi-experimental study of the generalized enforcement of low-level violations in New York City finds that proactive policing increases crime. This finding suggests the importance of taking a careful look at aggressive enforcement approaches used by police to reduce crime as they may be causing harm in urban communities.

Objective. To assess whether the “law of crime concentration at place” applies in a non-urban context. We test whether longitudinal trends in crime concentration, stability, and variability apply in a suburban setting. Methods. We use group-based trajectory analysis to examine trends in recorded crime incidents on street segments in Brooklyn Park,...

Objectives This paper reports on the results of an experiment examining the community impact of collaborative problem solving versus directed patrol hot spots policing approaches relative to standard policing practices. The focus is the impact on community perceptions of police. Methods We randomly assigned 71 crime hot spots to receive problem sol...

Objectives We present findings from an evaluation of a large work release program in the Israeli Prison Service. The Israeli program uses an integrative therapeutic approach which combines work release with a series of other program elements. Our main question is whether this integration of multiple program elements leads to strong benefits in term...

Research Summary Just four decades ago, the predominant narrative in crime prevention and rehabilitation was that nothing works. Since that time, criminologists have accumulated a wide body of evidence about programs and practices in systematic reviews. In this article, we summarize what is known in seven broad criminal justice areas by drawing on...

The study’s purpose was to assess the contribution of the Work Release Program of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to the processes of prisoners’ rehabilitation. We interviewed 22 serving and released prisoners who participated in the program at two prisons in central Israel. Most respondents were positive toward the core components of the program,...

Despite the great importance of prison vocational programs, studies have pointed to a wide variety of barriers that inhibit the released prisoner's chances to integrate into the labor market. The present qualitative investigation was designed to crack the "black box" behind six vocational programs implemented in the Israel Prison Service (IPS). Our...

The use of paramilitary methods in civil policing tasks has become common in Western police agencies. Despite propositions that such methods should undermine the relationship between the police and the public, the effect of paramilitary policing on public trust in the police has not been empirically tested. In the present study we examine this ques...

Over the past two decades, there has been a growing consensus among researchers that hot spots policing is an effective strategy to prevent crime. Although strong evidence exists that hot spots policing will reduce crime at hot spots without immediate spatial displacement, we know little about its possible jurisdictional or large-area impacts. We c...

This chapter introduces and reviews the ten most effective and proven counterterrorism strategies, tactics, and practices. These strategies and practices which are mostly situational crime prevention techniques, are not much different from those that law enforcement deploys against "ordinary" criminals. Through offensive and defensive measures, pro...

This study describes the criminal careers of offenders convicted of fraud, distinguishing different career dimensions such as intermittency, versatility and specialization. Results indicate that most fraud offenders are versatile in the sense that they also have significant criminal records for other serious offending (that is, not fraud). At the s...

Objectives Although there are many evaluations of domestic violence rehabilitation programs, it is still unclear “what works” in this field, especially when it comes to programs within prison walls. Today, most studies indicate that domestic violence programs based on cognitive behavioral treatment, or psycho-educational models show small positive...

Research has shown that investments in social and personal capital prevent future offending. These studies have focused exclusively on street crimes, as well as among both community and offender samples. Unknown is the extent to which the capital-oriented explanation relates among white-collar offenders and their offending. This study uses a unique...

Objectives To identify how much of the variability of crime in a city can be attributed to micro (street segment), meso (neighborhood), and macro (district) levels of geography. We define the extent to which different levels of geography are important in understanding the crime problem within cities and how those relationships change over time. Met...

We propose that the causes of the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of police interventions can be better understood with an increased focus on the measurement of treatment implementation and outputs, as opposed to the more common “black box” conceptualizations of police interventions and outcome-only evaluations used in most experimental studies....

Crime victims are a unique subgroup who evaluate the police and police legitimacy more harshly than those who have not been victimized. This could be explained by their victimization, and their special needs from and expectations of the police. Due to the importance of crime victims for the criminal justice system, the current study examines the me...

Academics have long argued that the use of procedural justice is a necessary component of effective policing; yet, there is scant evidence on how the goals of procedural justice can be implemented in a practical way and on whether training officers to “listen and explain with equity and dignity” (LEED) actually translates into quantifiable improvem...

Just four decades ago, the predominant narrative in crime prevention and rehabilitation was that nothing works. Since that time, criminologists have accumulated a wide body of evidence about programs and practices in systematic reviews. In this book we summarize what is known in seven broad criminal justice domains, drawing upon systematic reviews...

While just a decade ago, there were almost no systematic reviews on policing, we now have 17 completed systematic reviews of police practices. We examined these reviews to assess what we have learned, questions that remain unanswered, and how we can best move forward. Our findings suggest the effectiveness of a number of policing strategies for add...

Just four decades ago, the predominant narrative about the effectiveness of crime prevention was simply that nothing works. In this concluding chapter, we ask whether systematic reviews of evidence in interventions in crime and justice have changed our overall understanding of what works. Our assessments of systematic reviews show that there is str...

Over the last two decades, there has been increased interest in the distribution of crime and other antisocial behavior at lower levels of geography. The focus on micro geography and its contribution to the understanding and prevention of crime has been called the ‘criminology of place’. It pushes scholars to examine small geographic areas within c...

Crime victims are a unique subgroup who evaluate the police and police legitimacy more harshly than those who have not been victimized. This could be explained by their victimization, and their special needs from and expectations of the police. Due to the importance of crime victims for the criminal justice system, the current study examines the me...

Objectives Effects of place-based criminal justice interventions extend across both space and time, yet methodological approaches for evaluating these programs often do not accommodate the spatiotemporal dimension of the data. This paper presents an example of a bivariate spatiotemporal Ripley’s k-function, which is increasingly employed in the fie...