Don M. Gottfredson Professor of Evidence-Based Criminology
Education
Ph.D. (1997) Rutgers University
Bio
Anthony A. Braga is the Don M. Gottfredson Professor of Evidence-Based Criminology in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University and a Senior Research Fellow in the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard University. He is also a member of the University of Chicago Crime Lab and a Senior Fellow in the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the President and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology. He received his M.P.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University.
Dr. Braga’s research involves collaborating with criminal justice, social service, and community-based organizations to address illegal access to firearms, reduce gang and group-involved violence, and control crime hot spots. Since 1995, Braga has worked closely with criminal justice practitioners in Boston to reduce youth gun violence. He was a member of the Boston Gun Project working group that implemented the well-known Operation Ceasefire gang violence reduction strategy that was associated with a 63% reduction in youth homicides in Boston during the mid to late 1990s. Since 2007, Braga has served as the Chief Policy Advisor to Commissioner Edward F. Davis of the Boston Police Department. In this role Braga has worked with Boston Police command staff and officers to implement the Compstat management accountability system, reinvigorate the Operation Ceasefire strategy, and develop the Safe Street Team program which uses community problem solving techniques to control violent crime hot spots. His work with the Boston Police Department on its Safe Street Teams program was recently recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police with its Community Policing Award (2011) and Excellence in Law Enforcement Research Award (2011).
Dr. Braga has served as a consultant on controlling and preventing violent crime problems to many Federal, State, and local criminal justice agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice; U.S. Department of the Treasury; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security; Massachusetts State Police; Baltimore Police Department; New York Police Department; Los Angeles Police Department; Milwaukee Police Department; Oakland Police Department; San Francisco Police Department; and many others. Dr. Braga’s work on controlling and preventing violent crime has received numerous awards. Most recently, Braga was a recipient of the United States Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety (2009) and the U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods’ Distinguished Service by a Research Partner Award (2010).
Dr. Braga has published numerous scholarly papers and his work has been published in top criminology and criminal justice journals such as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Criminology & Public Policy. His work has also appeared in top medical and public health journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Public Health. With colleagues, he has authored and edited several books such as Policing Problem Places: Crime Hot Spots and Effective Prevention (Oxford University Press, 2010), Problem-Oriented Policing and Crime Prevention (Criminal Justice Press, 2008), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: A Comparative Perspective (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2007), and Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Areas of Specialization
Police & Crime Control
Firearms & Violence
Program Evaluation
Key Publications
Braga, A.A., & D. L. Weisburd. (Forthcoming). The effects of focused deterrence strategies on crime: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.
Braga, A. A. (Forthcoming). Getting deterrence right? Evaluation evidence and complementary crime control mechanisms. Criminology & Public Policy.
Braga, A. A., D. M. Hureau, & A. V. Papachristos. (Forthcoming). An ex-post-facto evaluation framework for place-based police interventions. Evaluation Review.
Braga, A. A., G. J. Wintemute, G. L. Pierce, P. J. Cook, & G. Ridgeway. (Forthcoming). Interpreting the empirical evidence on illegal gun market dynamics. Journal of Urban Health.
Braga, A. A., & G. L. Pierce. (Forthcoming). Reconsidering the ballistic imaging of crime bullets in gun law enforcement operations. Forensic Science Policy and Management.
Contact
973-353-5923 / Send an email