Al Blumstein: 40 Years of Contributions to Criminal Justice
edited by Nancy Ritter
He brings reason and practicality
to scientific discussionsand
an ability to examine evidence
that is the envy of prosecutors.
This is how a former director of the
National Institute of Justice described
Alfred Blumstein, Ph.D. From crime
trends to sentencing guidelines, the
impact of Blumsteins work is evident
in the criminal justice policies and practices
of 21st century America. His research has
covered a stunning range of criminal justice
phenomena and policy: crime measurement,
criminal careers, sentencing, deterrence
and incapacitation, prison populations,
demographic trends, juvenile violence,
and drug-enforcement policy. Put simply,
few in the Nation possess Blumsteins
understanding of the links between
violence, public health, and criminology.
In the mid-1960s, Blumstein was asked
to lead a task force on science and
technology for a presidential commission
that produced The Challenge of Crime in
a Free Society, a 1967 report that shaped
criminal justice agendas in this country for
years. Now, on the 40th anniversary of that
landmark report, Blumstein is receiving the
2007 Stockholm Prize in Criminology, given
for significant contributions to criminological
research or practices that combat crime and
promote human rights. He shares this award
with Terri E. Moffitt, Ph.D., currently at the
University of London, whose social, psychological,
and biological studies of crime and
human development have had international
impact.
Blumstein has been instrumental to our
understanding of violence as both a criminological
and a public health concern. His
epidemiological research, for example,
demonstrated how the growth of illegal
drug markets and the prevalence of illegal
weapons among youth influenced violent
crime in the 1980s and 1990s. Here are a
few highlights of his work:
- Carnegie Mellon University. For more
than 35 years, he has been the J. Erik
Jonsson University Professor of Urban
Systems and Operations Research and
the director of the National Consortium on
Violence Research at Carnegie Mellons H.
John Heinz III School of Public Policy and
Management. He was dean of the Heinz
School from 1986 to 1993.
- Presidents Commission on Law
Enforcement and Administration
of Justice. He led the Commissions
Task Force on Science and Technology,
working with some of the best criminal
justice minds in the country. Out of the
Commissions work came The Challenge
of Crime in a Free Society. (See related story,
The
40th Anniversary of the Crime Report.)
- National Consortium on Violence
Research (NCOVR). Under Blumsteins
leadership, NCOVR created a unique
framework for research on violence.
He pulled together a remarkable group
of scholars and policymakers to serve
on NCOVRs advisory committee.
- Awards and honors. A page of
Blumsteins résumé could be devoted
to leadership positions he has held and
awards and honors he has received.
Here are three: the American Society of
Criminologys Sutherland Award (1987),
the Presidents Award from the Operations
Research Society of America (1993), and
the Wolfgang Award for Distinguished
Achievement in Criminology (1998).
- Body of written work. Blumstein has
coauthored and edited many notable
works, including The Crime Drop in
America (2006); Exploring Recent Trends
in U.S. Homicide Rates (1998); and
Youth Violence, Guns, and the Illicit-Drug
Industry (1995). He is regularly published
in journals, such as Law and Society
Review, Journal of Criminal Law and
Criminology, Journal of Criminal Justice,
and Criminology.
This is just a glimpse of Blumsteins
résumé. Behind it, of course, are the lives
he has touched. Countless people have
been affected by Blumsteins work on
youth violence, for example. Then there
are the hundreds of students, coworkers,
policymakers, researchers, and in-the-trenches
law enforcement professionals
who call him advisor and friend. To offer
Journal readers a flavor of the man behind
the accomplishments, we asked a few
of these people, How has Al Blumstein
enriched or influenced your life? Here
are their responses.
Als international recognition for
contributions to research on criminal
justice comes as no surprise to those of
us who have benefited from his
insights over his long and productive
career. During my service as governor
of Pennsylvania, Al served as chairman
of the Commission on Crime and
Delinquency. His wisdom on sensitive
issues involving police, courts, and corrections
contributed greatly to a safer
Pennsylvania. Al was always inquisitive,
respectful of the views of others, but true
to his core beliefs in equal justice under
the lawa true champion of the value
of solid research in the development of
sound policy.
Dick Thornburgh
Former U.S. Attorney General
Former Governor of Pennsylvania
Attorney, K&L Gates LLP
I first met Al within weeks of my arrival
at graduate school in 1974. I poked
my head into his office and asked, How
much can age explain the crime rise during
the 1960s? His response was not
a bunch of intimidating queries about
whether I had read this or that paper or
considered how hard a question this was
or, even worse, how badly I framed the
research question. Instead, he said, Dont
know. Why dont we work on it? Thats
how my career in crime began. It typifies
Als enthusiasm for plowing ahead,
unafraid, with youthful optimism and
enthusiasm.
Daniel S. Nagin
Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
In 1966, Al brought systems analysis
to the Presidents Commission on
Law Enforcement and Administration of
Justice. For better or worse, he is the
person most responsible for the widespread
use of the term system of justice.
I remember telling him the data
that were needed to put numbers to his
justice system flowchart simply did not
exist. Not to be deterred, Al and his staff
produced a chart without numbers that
has been so useful as a teaching tool that
it has been printed in every major criminology
text since 1970. He is one of our
countrys most influential and productive
criminologists.
Roland Chilton
Professor, University of Massachusetts
(See chart, Systems Analysis Flowchart.)
Hes 5'9" yet the NIJ staff referred
to Blumstein, the dean of criminologists,
as Big Al. When he grudgingly
welcomed me to the NIJ directorship,
he said it was a strange irony, indeed,
when the Nations most important crime
research portfolio is handed over to a
police officer without a Ph.D. or a long list
of juried publications. Big Als sarcastic
welcome was tongue-in-cheekhe has
an engineering background and is not a
traditional social scientist by education
or training. That was 25 years ago. Al
continues to challenge policymakers and
researchers to be more serious about
understanding the causes and correlates
of crime in America. With a magic marker
and an overhead projector, Al can be very
persuasive in using data analysis to
demonstrate how misinformed, wrong,
and dangerous the conventional wisdom
about crime rates can be.
James K. (Chips) Stewart
Former Director, NIJ
Senior Fellow, CNA Corporation
Today, a mathematician helping police
to solve crimelike in the hit TV series
Numb3rsseems ordinary. But in 1966,
finding a scientist within the criminal
justice system was rare. By some stroke
of luck, Al Blumstein, a Ph.D. in operations
research, was chosen to be the
director of the first national-level criminal
justice Science and Technology Task
Force. Als systemic view of the interactions
between the courts, police, and
corrections has proven to be a seminal
and lasting contribution. This came about
not by theoretical musing in the office,
but by Als scientific philosophy: learning
and assimilating everything he could of
the system ... short of getting arrested,
prosecuted, and tried.
Saul I. Gass
Professor, University of Maryland
Serving simultaneously as the U.S.
Attorney for Western Pennsylvania
and in national posts for the U.S.
Department of Justice has required me
to travel frequently between Pittsburgh
and Washington, DC. An unexpected
joy in this aerial commute has been the
opportunity for ongoing, onboard collaborative
discussions with Al Blumstein, who
also travels frequently between the two
cities. Just as a window seat affords a
view of the big picture that can never be
gleaned from ground level, Als leading-edge
scholarship has lifted criminology
issues to the perspective of public
policy solutions.
Mary Beth Buchanan
U.S. Attorney for Western Pennsylvania
Acting Director,
Office on Violence Against Women,
U.S. Department of Justice
In 1966, Al hired me as the youngest
fulltime member of the Science and
Technology Task Force of the Presidents
Commission on Law Enforcement and
Administration of Justice. I was 23 years
old and had just completed my first year
in graduate school at MIT. In other words,
I was wet behind the earswith virtually
no professional experience in applying
operations research to crime. Al was my
mentor. He showed me how to think,
how to structure problems, even how
to write. He encouraged me to continue
this as a doctoral research topicI did,
and it changed my career. His encouragement,
patience and support were remarkable,
given all the other responsibilities he
had at the time.
Richard C. Larson
Director, Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
At the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), we looked to
Al as a member of the Research Agenda
Steering Committee for the CDC Injury
Center, a group that has helped define
priorities for CDC research on public
health and violence prevention since 1999.
I also recallwith much gratefulnessAls
wise counsel during the preparation
of the Surgeon Generals report on youth
violence in 2001. I asked for his help in
identifying a scientist of sufficient stature
(Al was too busy to take the job himself)
to serve as editor of this report, which
had a tremendous impact on U.S. public
health research and program polices on
youth violence.
W. Rodney Hammond
Director, Division of Violence Prevention,
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
When Al asked me to join the National
Consortium on Violence Research
(NCOVR) Advisory Board, I did not realize
how important a role NCOVR would play
in this countrys criminal justice system.
Al has a knack of sitting at a tablesleeves
rolled up and scratching at his left
elbowwhile imparting pearls of wisdom
and challenging everyone present to think
a little broader and deeper about the problem.
He has made me a better judge by
challenging me to think dispassionately
about very serious issues within the criminal
justice system. Without Al, neither
Carnegie Mellon University nor NCOVR
would have attained the high level of
respect that is now taken for granted.
Justin M. Johnson
Judge, Pennsylvania Superior Court
NCJ 218260
Chart
Systems Analysis Flowchart
As director of the Science and Technology Task Force (part
of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and
Administration of Justice), Al Blumstein was instrumental
in creating a systems analysis portrayal of criminal
justice in the United States. In 1997, the Bureau of Justice
Statistics published the flowchart, which gives a simplified
view of caseflow through the criminal justice system. To
download or order a copy of this chart, visit
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/largechart.cfm.
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