Cynthia Lum
Cynthia Lum
Distinguished University Professor
Policing, police organizations, patrol and investigations operations, police technologies, evidence-based crime policy and translational criminology
Dr. Cynthia Lum is a Distinguished University Professor of Criminology, Law and Society and Director of George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. She is a leading authority on evidence-based policing, an approach that advocates that research, evaluation, and scientific processes should have “a seat at the table” in law enforcement policymaking and practice. Prof. Lum has studied and written extensively about patrol operations and police crime prevention activities, police technology, investigations and detective work, and evidence-based crime policy. Additionally, she has developed numerous tools and strategies to translate and institutionalize research into everyday law enforcement operations. Her and Professor Christopher Koper's book on these topics--Evidence-Based Policing: Translating Research Into Practice (Oxford University Press)--received the American Society of Criminology Division of Policing 2020 Outstanding Book Award.
Professor Lum is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the 2023 recipient of ASC's Herbert Bloch Award. She is an appointed member of the Committee on Law and Justice (CLAJ) for the National Academies of Sciences (NAS), and has served on the NAS’s ad hoc committees on Proactive Policing and Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors. She is a Board Trustee of the Council on Criminal Justice and a Board Director for the National Police Foundation. Prof. Lum is the founding editor of Translational Criminology Magazine and Editor-in Chief (with Professor Christopher Koper) of Criminology & Public Policy, the flagship policy journal of the American Society of Criminology.
Professor Lum is the recipient of the 2017 inaugural Mason Presidential Medal for Excellence in Social Impact and the 2020 Virginia State Council for Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Award.
Selected Publications
Only select publications from 2022-2023 are listed. For full publication list, see Cynthia Lum's C.V.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [Committee member and contributing author]. (2022). Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors: Compilation of Reports (five volumes). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Lum, C., Koper, C.S., Wu, H.X., Goodier, M., Johnson, W., Shadur, J., & Krause, J. (2022). The Impact of COVID-19 on Policing: A Case Study of the Fairfax County Police Department. Fairfax, VA: Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, George Mason University.
Willis, J.J., Koper, C.S., & Lum, C. (2022). An assessment of police technology and the ‘iron cage’ of abstract policing in the United States. In J. Terpstra, R. Salet, & N. Fyfe (eds.) The Abstract Police: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Change in Police Organisations. The Hague, Netherlands: Eleven International Publishing.
Expanded Publication List
Grants and Fellowships
(Active grants only; for full grant list, see CV.)
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (with PI: Burch, J., Co-PIs: Dong, B., Engel, R.). Understanding the Application, Recruitment, Retention, and Careers of Police Officers: A Longitudinal Study. National Policing Institute ($186,401).
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Co-PI: Koper, C.S.). Evidence-Based Assessment of Seattle Police Department Investigations. Seattle Police Department ($121,363).
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (with Koper, C.S., also PI). Institutionalizing and Sustaining an Evidence-Based and Problem-Oriented Approach in Suffolk County Police Department. Bureau of Justice Assistance (via Suffolk County Police Department) Grant # 15PBJA-21-GG-04371-SMTP (GMU portion: $397,846).
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (with Koper, C.S., also PI). Evidence-Based Policing Course for the State of New York. New York Division of Criminal Justice Services. ($49,932).
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (with Christopher Koper, also PI). Improving the Investigation, Clearance Rates, and Victim Restoration of Robberies: A Randomized Controlled Experiment. National Institute of Justice Grant# 2019-R2-CX-0024 ($548,246).
EDITORS IN CHIEF (with Christopher Koper). American Society of Criminology. Criminology and Public Policy ($257,390).
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI: Tom Carr). GMU-HIDTA. Office of National Drug Control Policy. (Total funding as of 2021: $25,089,714).
Courses Taught
CRIM 100 Introduction to Criminal Justice
CRIM 401 Policing in America
CRIM 405 Law and Justice Around the World
CRIM 491/492 Administration of Justice Honors Seminar
CRIM 510 Evidence-Based Policing
CRIM 760 Evidence-Based Crime Policy (formerly Crime and Crime Policy)
CRIM 795 Research Advancing Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing
CPET 0100-D74 Evidence-Based Policing: A Course for Practitioners (GMU Continuing Education Program)
OLLI Courses on Crime Prevention, Criminological Theory, and Contemporary Criminal Justice Issues
International Summer School for Policing Scholarship
Education
Ph.D., Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland (2003)
MSc., Criminology, London School of Economics (1996)
B.A., Political Science, University of California Los Angeles (1995)
B.A., Economics, University of California Los Angeles (1995)
Recent Presentations
See CV.
In the Media
Dissertations Supervised
Heather Prince, Are Those Teenagers Really Up to No Good? Developing a Predictive Model of Juvenile Crime (2022)
Sang Jun Park, Examining the "Law of Crime Concentrations" Across Multiple Jurisdictions (2019)
Jacqueline Amber Scherer, Identifying Effective Strategies for Robbery Investigations: An Examination of Organizational, Procedural, and Individual Characteristics (2019)
Gregory Jones, Enhancing Patrol Deployment Strategy and Deployment Efficiency of Police Managers by Utilizing Automated Vehicle Locator Technology (2018)
Heather Vovak, Examining the Relationship between Crime Rates and Clearance Rates Using Dual Trajectory Analysis (2016)
Julie Grieco, Attitudinal Dimensions and Openness to Evidence-Based Policing: Perspectives of Academy Recruits (2016)
Ajima Olaghere, The Everyday Activities That Bind for Crime: Investigating the Process of Routine Activities at Specific Places (2015)
