Criminology Professor wins prestigious Sellin-Glueck award

Mike Levi, Professor of Criminology, was last week presented with the 2014 Sellin-Glueck award for comparative and international criminology - the highest award given by The American Society of Criminology to scholars from outside the USA.

Now in its 40th year, the Thorsten Sellin and Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck Award aims to draw attention to criminological scholarship that considers problems of crime and justice outside the United States. Professor Levi found out in May that he would receive the award due to his 'truly remarkable contributions to international and comparative criminology'. The award presentation took place at the Society's international conference in San Francisco last week.

Professor Levi says of the award: "European criminology is making tremendous advances, but the American Society of Criminology is the largest and oldest gathering of criminologists in the world. If one is going to get an award, then San Francisco is a choice location! The areas I research are particularly difficult to get valid or indeed any data on so it is particularly gratifying to get an award from the most prestigious and quantitatively oriented Criminology Society."

This award is the latest in a number of accolades Professor Levi can boast. His pioneering research has led to his election to the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellowship of the Learned Society of Wales. In 2013 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime (IASOC). Professor Levi has been Professor of Criminology at Cardiff University since 1991

Professor Levi travelled to San Francisco from New York, where he recently presented a paper on money laundering data at a symposium at New York University Law School. This paper looked at the development of indicators on illicit activities, emphasising the importance of underlying interpretation of the meaning and value of data.