Abstract
This paper is an edited version of the Jerry Lee Lecture delivered at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium in 2018, the year in which Professor Herman Goldstein was awarded the Stockholm Prize in Criminology in recognition of his contribution to public safety through the development of problem-oriented policing. This paper examines the significance of a problem-oriented approach and seeks to establish the right balance among, and appropriate role for, a broad range of diverse contributions that scholars and analysts can make to support effective problem-solving. It explores the distinctive contributions of experimental criminology and program evaluation to problem-oriented work, and contrasts the inquiry techniques typically employed by social scientists and by natural scientists. The goal of this paper is to usefully “round out” the role that scholars are prepared to play in advancing effective problem-solving practice.
Highlights
It is an honor for me to be invited to deliver the Jerry Lee lecture1, and it is a privilege for me to be part of Herman Goldstein’s celebration
I have never attended a criminology conference before, so I will tell you a couple of reasons why I feel something of an outsider in this setting
I have contrasted the distinctive contributions of social science program evaluation with the broad range of scientific inquiry modes employed by natural scientists, so as to usefully “round out” the role that scholars are prepared to play in advancing best problem-solving practice
Summary
It is an honor for me to be invited to deliver the Jerry Lee lecture, and it is a privilege for me to be part of Herman Goldstein’s celebration. I’m not a habitual user of the preferred tools of social science or of criminology. Recognizing that I am in the company of expert and dedicated criminologists, I guess I should pause for a moment and allow those of you who want to leave to do so, because you have concluded that I am an academic slouch, analytically incompetent. I have a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, pattern recognition, which I earned in 9 months. I invented the topological approach to fingerprint matching, which earned me a Ph.D. and six patents. I don’t regard myself as an analytic slouch. It is true that I am not at all immersed in the habits or norms or conventional analytic toolkits of any particular discipline, which I prefer to think of as a strength, not a weakness
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
