Published
2024-10-23Updated
2024-10-23Frances Crook led the Howard League for Penal Reform in the UK for 35 years. There, she applied criminological research to reduce the imprisonment of young offenders in favor of more humane rehabilitation programs. During this time, partly in response to Crook's work, the number of under-18s in prison fell by 85%, from 3 500 to 500. She also analyzed police arrest data based on age and tried to persuade authorities to find alternatives to arrest. Annual arrests of children fell by 80% over the period, from 330 000 to 70 000.
Frances Crook left the Howard League for Penal reform in 2021. She is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Leicester School of Criminology, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Liverpool and Leeds Beckett University. She has worked for Amnesty International and been a local elected representative in London.
Bryan Stevenson, as an attorney before the US Supreme Court, has applied criminological research to stop the execution and life imprisonment of young offenders. He is the founder of the US legal aid organization Equal Justice Initiative, which has saved 130 death row inmates from execution since 1989. In the most high-profile case, Stevenson represented a convicted murderer who was 14 at the time of the crime and convinced the Supreme Court that life without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional.
Bryan Stevenson is Professor of Law at New York University and Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in the United States. He has received several honors and awards, including the Olof Palme Prize. He recently established the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama, USA to honor the more than 4,000 African Americans lynched in the South between 1877 and 1950.
About the Stockholm Prize in Criminology
The Stockholm Prize in Criminology is an international prize awarded annually. It is sponsored by the Stockholm Prize in Criminology Foundation, established by the Swedish government and the Torsten Söderberg Foundation. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2006. Some international organizations also make important contributions to the prize.
The prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in criminological research or for the practical application of research findings in the field of law enforcement and the promotion of human rights.
The independent international jury is chaired by Professors Lawrence W. Sherman and Jerzy Sarnecki. The award ceremony will take place in Stockholm City Hall in connection with the Stockholm Criminology Symposium, organized by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention in June 2025.
The Torsten Söderberg Foundation and the prize