Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center

April 2019

The Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC) has announced the appointment of Dr. Gary LaFree as its new Director.

The University of Maryland launched MCRIC in 2018 with support from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services in order to harness the power of research, data, and science to reduce crime and improve lives across Maryland. The Center provides academic expertise, conducts research, integrates data, and develops and evaluates research-based, innovative criminal justice strategies aimed at preventing and reducing crime.

Dr. Gary LaFree is Professor and Chair of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at the University of Maryland. He is also the former Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.

The START Center is a Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence headquartered at the University of Maryland. START supports the research efforts of leading social scientists at more than 50 academic and research institutions, each of whom is conducting original investigations into fundamental questions about terrorism. During his time as Director of START, the Center launched the development of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), an open-source database that includes information on terrorist attacks around the world since 1970, more than 180,000 cases in all.

Dr. LaFree received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Indiana University in 1979. During 2005-2006, he served as President of the American Society of Criminology (ASC). Dr. LaFree was named a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2006 and a member of the National Academy of Science's Committee on Law and Justice in 2008. He has also served as the Past President of the ASC’s Division on International Criminology (1991-1993), the chair of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Crime, Law and Deviance (1991-1993), the Executive Board of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (2001-2006), and the Executive Committee of the Justice Research Statistics Association (2000-2001, 1993-1994).

While at the University of Maryland, Dr. LaFree has been a founding member of the Democracy Collaborative and an invited member of the National Consortium of Violence Research. Before joining the faculty at Maryland, Dr. LaFree served as the Chair of the Sociology and Criminology Department at the University of New Mexico for six years and as the Director of the New Mexico Criminal Justice Statistics Analysis Center for 13 years. Dr. LaFree was appointed by the Governor of New Mexico to chair the State Crime and Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council—a position that he filled for four years.

Dr. LaFree received the G. Paul Sylvestre Award for outstanding achievements in advancing criminal justice statistics in 1994, and the Phillip Hoke Award for excellence in applied research in 1994 and 1998, from the Justice Research Statistics Association. LaFree has written more than 60 articles and book chapters and three books and is currently on the editorial boards of seven journals.

Dr. LaFree will work closely with the Governor's Office and MCRIC researchers to advance the Center’s mission to provide academic expertise, conduct research, integrate data, and develop and evaluate research-based, innovative criminal justice strategies aimed at preventing and reducing crime in Maryland.