Alumni Spotlight
Francis Cullen ’68: Recipient of the Stockholm Prize for Criminology
On a sunny day in June 2022, English High alumnus Francis Cullen ‘68 found himself a long way away from his alma mater on Louis Pasteur Avenue. He was now Dr. Francis Cullen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Cincinnati, walking up the steps of the Stockholm City Hall to be presented with the Stockholm Prize in Criminology by Queen Silvia of Sweden.
At the 2022 Stockholm Prize award ceremony, from left: 2021 recipient Elijah Anderson, Queen Silvia of Sweden, 2022 recipient Francis T. Cullen and 2022 recipient Peggy Giordano.
The Stockholm Prize, which is like the Nobel Prize for the criminal justice field, recognizes his studies showing the effectiveness of rehabilitation in reducing recidivism. Punishment is not effective at changing offenders’ behaviors, but teaching self-control, anger management and improved attitudes works, his research demonstrates.
“You can be a great scholar and never get selected,” he said of the award. “It’s an honor I never expected to achieve.”
Dr. Cullen has spent decades reviewing the evidence that while prison per se does not reduce repeat offending, rehabilitation programs linked to criminal sentences can be very effective in stopping a life in crime. He has used this evidence, from a wide variety of tests, to become the leader of a scholarly campaign to “save rehabilitation” from budget cuts and political mandates. His own scholarship on the importance of both control and support of ex-offenders in the community has been globally influential in showing what works.
Francis Cullen in the 1968 English High Yearbook
As was recorded in his 1968 English High yearbook, Cullen initially considered becoming a history teacher. He enrolled at Bridgewater State College, hoping to avoid the draft and Vietnam. At Bridgewater he ultimately studied psychology and sociology, where he was introduced to all the social sciences and research. He graduated in 1972 and went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D from Columbia University in 1974 and 1979. He taught at Western Illinois University for a time before joining the University of Cincinnati in 1982 and ultimately being named an emeritus professor in 2015.
Cullen is one of the few individuals who has served as president of two of the world’s largest and prominent criminology organizations, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences from 1993-1994 and the American Society of Criminology from 2003-2004. He has published more than 400 works, which have been cited more than 64,000 times.
