2026
Mark W. Lipsey
Myth-busting research on crime rates and measures against crimes
Mark W. Lipsey was lauded by the jury for having revealed and spotlighted the truth about well-tested recidivism prevention programs, both in and out of prisons. His meta-analytics produced an enormous harvest of evidence for a promised feast of crime prevention. His work spread ideas and treatments of adult and youth offenders, reducing suffering from crime harm and imprisonment practices around the democratic world.Mark W. Lipsey
Born 1946 in the US. Mark W. Lipsey was Research Professor and Director of the Peabody Research Institute of Vanderbilt University (United States) at the time of the award.
Myth-busting on rehabilitation and efficiency
Mark W. Lipsey was awarded the 2026 Stockholm Prize in Criminology for myth-busting research on crime rates.
The work of Mark W. Lipsey and his colleagues stood up against a major myth on crime: the claim that rehabilitation does not work for convicted offenders. Using a meta-analysis methodology, the work is renowned for drawing complex conclusions from hundreds of independent studies.
Benefits of rehabilitative programs
Since his first meta-analysis in 1992 analysed 443 separate studies of the effects of rehabilitation programs for juvenile offenders, Lipsey’s work provided substantial evidence on the benefits of rehabilitative programs for offenders young and old.
Lipsey’s subsequent work found more studies showing similar results in a range of large meta-analyses. Even in comparisons of diverting juveniles from prosecution (but with rehabilitation), against prosecuting them without rehabilitative court sentences, Lipsey reached the same conclusion: that rehabilitation can work if it is provided to offenders, with or without criminal sentences.
Preserved support when many concluded “nothing works”
The policy impact of Lipsey’s work had also been substantial. Many observers credit Lipsey’s work with preserving support for the idea of rehabilitation in various correctional institutions when many leaders had concluded that “nothing works”.
His research showed that rehabilitation can work if it is delivered properly according to their scientific designs. Those findings provided further evidence for the claim that inadequate funding of rehabilitation of offenders in and outside institutions will increase crime rates.