Prof. Braga is one of the nation’s leading social scientists working to improve our understanding of crime and innovate in our justice system. His research cuts across many pressing topics of broad interest including policing, gun violence, and crime prevention. His recent research includes a randomized controlled trial on the impact of police body worn cameras, a study on the value of sustained investigative effort in solving homicides and nonfatal gun assaults, and the effect of court-ordered reforms on racial disparities in New York Police Department enforcement patterns. Braga is a fellow the American Society of Criminology, a fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and the 2014 recipient of the Joan McCord Award recognizing his commitment to randomized controlled experiments.
Prof. Braga will join Penn’s Department of Criminology to launch the Crime and Justice Policy Lab, aiming to put Penn’s research expertise to work in addressing crime problems and solving justice system challenges in Philadelphia and beyond.
Braga is joining Penn after five years at Northeastern University, serving as the Elmer V. H. and Eileen M. Brooks Distinguished Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the Director of the Center on Crime and Community Resilience. From 2012 to 2016 Braga was the Don M. Gottfredson Professor of Evidence-Based Criminology at Rutgers University. Prior to his time at Rutgers, Braga was a Lecturer in Public Policy and Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He earned a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice (1997) from Rutgers University, an MPA (2002) from Harvard University, and a BS in Criminal Justice (1991) from the University of Massachusetts.