Between 1963 and 1975, there was a sudden drop in suicides in England and Wales. This interested British criminologists Ronald V. Clarke and Patricia Mayhew. In 1988, they published a report showing that the reduction was due to a change in the chemical composition of household gas. It simply became harder to commit suicide just by turning on the gas. The conclusion was that the practicality of carrying out a particular act has a major impact on whether or not the act will take place.

Far from being limited to suicide, the two criminologists' conclusions apply to all human behavior, not least the likelihood of whether or not a crime will be committed. Their work has greatly contributed to the rapid development and application of so-called 'situational crime prevention' in both the public and private sectors. Clarke and Mayhew have shown that crime prevention measures can often be quite simple and yet very effective. In many parts of the world, not least in Sweden, this has led to significant reductions in the number of burglaries, car thefts and robberies, among other things.

The publication of Clarke and Mayhew's Crime as Opportunity in 1976 was a major breakthrough in the development of crime prevention theory. It has contributed to the realization that it is not only social and psychological factors that make people commit or refrain from crime, but also the physical design of the environment. The nature of the street environment and buildings, or the accessibility of valuable objects, can influence the likelihood of a crime being committed.

According to the jury's motivation, the work of Ronald V. Clarke and Patricia Mayhew has uniquely contributed to a change in crime prevention strategies worldwide, focusing on the characteristics of situations where crimes are often committed.

Ronald V. Clarke is a professor at the School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University. He is also a visiting professor at University College, London. Before leaving his native Britain in 1984 for the United States, he was employed for 15 years by the British government's Criminology Research Unit. Clarke founded and edited the annual anthology Crime Prevention Studies, and has authored or co-authored over 250 books and articles.

Patricia Mayhew is a consultant in criminology in the UK and a former official of the UK Home Office. She has also worked at the National Institute of Justice in Washington and the Australian Institute of Criminology in Canberra. From 2004 to 2008 she was Director of the Crime and Justice Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She is currently a member of the UK Statistics Authority's Crime Statistics Advisory Committee. In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II made her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her significant work in criminology.

The prize was awarded on June 9 in Stockholm City Hall.

About the "
" Award The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international award established with the support of the Ministry of Justice and the Torsten Söderberg Foundation. It is awarded annually, with a prize of one million kronor, in conjunction with the Stockholm Criminology Symposium organized by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.

The prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in criminological research or for the practical application of research findings regarding crime prevention and the promotion of human rights.

The award aims to promote:
– increased knowledge regarding the causes of crime at the individual and structural levels
– more effective and humane public policies regarding the treatment of offenders
– increased knowledge of alternative crime prevention measures, both within the judicial system and civil society
– practices for assisting crime victims
– improved methods for reducing abuse of authority within the judicial system on a global scale.

The award was presented for the first time at City Hall in June 2006, with the Jerry Lee Foundation as the original sponsor. 

The Stockholm Prize in Criminology, SU