The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international prize awarded by the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation. The winners are selected by an independent international jury chaired by Professors Lawrence Sherman and Jerzy Sarnecki.

The 2019 award is presented to a policymaker and a drug policy researcher for their unique and evidence-based work, which has included extensive field testing of the impact of drug policy innovations on crime and drug users' health. Together, their respective work has made a significant contribution to changing and improving drug policy.

As Minister of the Interior (1993-2002) and Federal President of Switzerland (1999), Ruth Dreifuss was the main political champion of a unique experiment to test a new treatment for heroin users. The aim was to see if the new treatment could help reduce the crime and health problems caused by 'traditional' drug policies.

In these experiments, individuals who had failed their methadone treatments were offered a so-called 'Heroin-Assisted Therapy' (HAT). They were given the opportunity to inject legally prescribed heroin in medically supervised facilities. The question was whether the method could be made safe and how it would affect the addicts' behavior. It turned out that the HAT trials significantly reduced the addicts' criminality, while improving their health.

Ruth Dreifuss was not swayed by the strong protests that the trials provoked. She argued that in order to find the best alternative treatments for heroin addiction, the trials were legitimate and that their results should be reflected in drug policy. Dreifuss' political courage laid the groundwork for further experiments in this field in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and most recently in Canada. All these experiments showed results similar to those in Switzerland.

Professor Peter Reuter, of the University of Maryland, a prominent researcher in the field of drug policy, gained international attention when he explained and defended the Swiss trials.

Long before these trials were initiated, Peter Reuter had spent decades investigating the link between drug policy and crime. His solid research has led to the same insights and conclusions as the Swiss field tests. By studying how criminalization of drug use and its enforcement affect crime and health, Reuter identified approaches that, without drug legalization, may be more effective. His studies on the effects of drug prices and availability have shown that many of the benefits of prohibiting drug use can be achieved with less intrusive measures. Punitive approaches to the drug problem alone can increase crime without reducing drug consumption.

By explaining these new treatment methods, including the Swiss model, Reuters' research has led to a change in drug policy in countries such as Brazil, Peru, Malaysia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Uruguay and the United States, among others.

According to the jury, Dreifuss and Reuter are important examples of how collaboration between researchers and policy makers can reduce crime while safeguarding humanitarian values.

The prize will be awarded in connection with The Stockholm Criminology Symposium on June 11, 2019.

Ruth Dreifuss is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Graduate Institute in Geneva. She holds a degree in Economics (BA) and Econometrics (MA) from the University of Geneva. She was Minister of the Interior and a member of the Swiss Federal Council between 1993 and 2002. In 1999, she became the first woman to become President of the Swiss Confederation. She is also a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and of the Global Drug Policy Program of the Open Society Foundations.

Peter Reuter is Professor of Public Policy and Criminology at the University of Maryland in College Park. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, he holds a degree from the University of New South Wales (BA) and later a PhD in Economics from Yale University Graduate School. From 1981 to 1993, he worked at the RAND Corporation, where he founded the RAND Drug Policy Center. In 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

About the prize
The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international prize established with the support of the Ministry of Justice and the Torsten Söderberg Foundation. It is awarded annually with a prize sum of SEK 1 million in connection 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 results relating to crime control and the promotion of human rights.

The aim of the prize is to promote:
 - increased knowledge of the causes of crime at the individual and structural level
 - more effective and humane public policies concerning the treatment of offenders
 - increased knowledge of alternative crime prevention measures, both within the judiciary and civil society
 - victim assistance practices
 - improved methods for reducing abuse of authority in the judiciary on a global scale.

The prize was awarded for the first time at the City Hall in June 2006 with the Jerry Lee Foundation as the original contributor. 
 
 Stockholm Prize in Criminology, SU