David Weisburd

• Published date: 01 February 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12352
• Date: 01 February 2018
• Author: Francis T. Cullen

VOLLMER AWARD COMMENTARY

VOLLMER AWARD

David Weisburd

In Tribute to a Scholar of Consequence

Francis T.Cullen

University of Cincinnati

Iam not sure that David Weisburd has left any awards for the rest of us to win. He

has been honored with the prestigious Stockholm Prize and the American Society of

Criminology’s Sutherland, Mentor, and now Vollmer awards—among many others.

What Daniel Day-Lewis and Katharine Hepburn are to acting (four Oscars each), David

is to criminology: someone whose career has been of special consequence and has merited

appropriate recognition.

I must confess that I am most envious, in a good way, of his ASC Mentor’s Award.

This achievement shows that David’s legacy will not reside solely in his extensive library

of writings but will have a living presence for a generation to come in the tens of students

whose careers he has shaped. The members of his academic family are proud to stand

on the shoulders of David, a true criminological giant, and, in doing so, to define the

criminological enterprise in fresh ways. Indeed, if David and his former students were to

comprise a faculty, they would rank among the top few criminology departments in the

world.

It might be assumed that this tribute to David is because I am a close friend, but the

fact is that I am not. It was not until 2010, when we were both appointed to two advisory

boards, that we had any personal contact. Since that time, we have shared PDFs of our

writings with one another and the occasional communication. But I do not have David’s

cell phone number, and I am not on his dinner card for ASC meetings. I also am not part of

what Merton (1995) referred to as his “cognitive environment”—in David’s case, applied

scholars who study the intersection of crime and place. I do sense, however, that had we

been in the same department, we would have been compatriots, given the homophile in

our social justice values and in our scientific vision for the field. Regardless, even in our

limited interactions, I soon realized that David is usually the smartest person in the room

Direct correspondence to Francis T. Cullen, School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

45221-0389 (e-mail: cullenft@ucmail.uc.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12352 C2018 American Society of Criminology 31

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 17 rIssue 1