In April 1957, the Crime Prevention Association of Philadelphia donated a gift to Penn to memorialize J. Francis Finnegan, a leader in Philadelphia crime prevention in the 1940's and 1950's. Each year, this prize is awarded at graduation in recognition of the best senior thesis submitted by a criminology major.
The only way to be considered for the J. Francis Finnegan Memorial Prize students must register and complete an honors thesis in Criminology. The due date will be announced in the Spring of 2023.
PAST WINNERS
2022 Sydney Shintani - The Impacts of Bail Reform on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Bail Outcomes; Evidence from Cook County
2021 Sabrina de Brito - Examining the Success of California's Proposition 47: What is the Effect of Reinvesting Incarceration Resources Into Treatment Services on Treatment Utilization, Arrest Rates, and Jail Population Numbers
2020 Maria Francesca Arruda de Amaral - Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Spillover Effects of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPS) in Baixada Fluminense
Alex Bardey - The Effect of Localized LED Streetlight Replacements on Adjacent Crime and Car Crashes: Evidence from Philadelphia
2019 Jillian Reeves - Beyond the Screen: Does Law & Order: SVU Increase Sex Crime Reporting?
2018 Alison Thompson - A retrospective study on the effect of police de-escalation training on officer use of force and safety
2017 Ruth Grossman - Did the 2010 OxyContin reformulation raise Philadelphia's heroin-related mortality rates more than the national average?
2016 Tilyn Nicole Bell - An evaluation of King County, WA's Buyer Beware Program: An assessment of the implementation and effects of a pilot prostitution policy
2015 Hannah Danielle Krinsky - Nutrients and delinquents: The effects of banning junk foods in American schools on violent juvenile conduct
2014 Emily Anne Leven - Transit police in the neighborhood: The effects of a SEPTA police initiative on crime
2013 Olivia Choy - Heart rate as a mediator of the social adversity-antisocial behavior relationship
2012 Corey Conyers - An investigation into the crime reduction effects of CCTV cameras in Lancaster, PA
2011 Zach Sommers – The effects of demographic factors on sentencing and probation outcomes
2010 Jill Portnoy – The second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) and its relation to crime, aggression and psychopathic personality