David B Wilson

Distinguished University Professor

Crime prevention, juvenile delinquency, and correctional treatment programs, meta-analysis, quantitative research methods, applied statistics

David B. Wilson, PhD, is a Distinguished University Professor in the Criminology, Law and Society Department at George Mason University. His research interests focus broadly on issues related to changing the criminal behavior of juvenile and adult offenders. More specifically, his research examines the effectiveness of offender rehabilitation and crime prevention efforts. He is also interested in advancing meta-analysis and program evaluation methods. His research has focused on a range of topics, including the effectiveness of juvenile delinquency interventions, juvenile curfews, school-based prevention programs, correctional boot camps, court-mandated batterer intervention programs, and drug courts; the effects of sugar on children's behavior; and the effects of alcohol on violent behavior. He co-authored a book on the methods of meta-analysis with Mark Lipsey that is widely used. He was co-editor of the Journal of Experimental Criminology and a past consulting editor for Psychological Bulletin. Currently, he serves as the methods editor for the Crime and Justice Group of the Campbell Collaboration and an associate editor for Research Synthesis Methods. He was awarded the Marcia Guttentag Award for Early Promise as an Evaluator by the American Evaluation Association in 1999 and the Frederick Mosteller Award for Distinctive Contributions to Systematic Reviewing. In 2021 he was appointed as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

Selected Publications

Olaghere, A., Wilson, D. B., & Kimbrell, C. Kimbrell. (2023). Inclusive critical appraisal of qualitative and quantitative findings in evidence synthesis. Research Synthesis Methods. DOI: 10.1002/jrsm.1659

Weisburd, D., Wilson, D. B., Petersen, K., & Telep, C. W. (2023). Does police patrol in large areas prevent crime? Revisiting the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment. Criminology & Public Policy. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12623

Dong, B., & Wilson, D. B. (2022). State firearm legislation and youth/young adult handgun carrying in the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health, 71(6), 751-756.

Kimbrell, C. S., Wilson, D. B., & Olaghere, A. (2022). Restorative justice programs and practices in juvenile justice: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis for effectiveness. Criminology and Public Policy. DOI: 10.1111/1745-9133.12613

Weisburd, D., Jonathan-Zamir, T., White, C., Wilson, D. B., & Kuen, K. (2022). Are the police primarily responsible for influencing place-level perceptions of procedural justice and effectiveness? A longitudinal study of street segments. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. DOI: 10.1177/00224278221120225

Petersen, K., Redlich, A. D., & Wilson, D. B. (2022). Where is the evidence? Comparing the effects of evidence strength and demographic characteristics on plea discounts. Journal of Quantitative Criminology. DOI: 10.1007/s10940-022-09555-8

Lowder, E. M., & Wilson, D. B. (2021). Pretrial Risk Assessment Validation Research: Range Restriction and Attenuation of Predictive Validity Estimates. Law and Human Behavior, 45(4), 324-355

Olaghere, A., Wilson, D. B., & Kimbrell, C. S. (2021). Trauma-focused interventions for justice-involved and at-risk youth: A meta-analysis. Criminal Justice and Behavior. DOI: 10.1177/00938548211003117

Wilson, D. B., Feder, L., & Olaghere, A. (2021). Court-mandated interventions for individuals convicted of domestic violence: An updated Campbell systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews,17:e1151. DOI: 10.1002/cl2.1151

Wilson, D. B. (2022). The relative incident rate ratio effect size for count-based impact evaluations: When an odds ratio is not an odds ratio. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 38, 323-341.

Weisburd, D., White, C., Wire, S., & Wilson, D. B. (2021). Enhancing Informal Social Controls to Reduce Crime: Evidence from a Study of Crime Hot Spots. Prevention Science, 1-14. \url{https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01194-4

Eggins, E., Dawe, S., Wilson, D. B., Chandler-Mather, N., & Betts, J. (2020). Protocol: psychosocial, pharmacological and legal interventions for improving the psychosocial outcomes of children with substance misusing parents. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 16(3), e1113.

Lum, C., Koper, C., Wilsond, D. B., Stoltz, M., Goodier, M., Eggins, E., Higginson, A., & Mazerolle, L. (2020). Body-worn cameras’ effects on police officers and citizen behavior: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 16(3), e1112. DOI: 10.1002/cl2.1112

Lum, Cynthia, Christopher S. Koper, David B. Wilson, Megan Stoltz, Michael Goodier, Elizabeth Eggins, Angela Higginson, & Lorraine Mazerolle. (2019). Protocol: Body-Worn Cameras' Effects on Police Officers and Citizen Behavior: A Systematic Review. Campbell Systematic Reviews. DOI: 10.1002/cl2.1043

Weisburd, D., Wilson, D. B., & Mazerolle, L. (2020). Analyzing block randomized studies: The example of the Jersey City drug market analysis experiment. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 16(2), 265-287.

Eggins, E., Dawe, S., Wilson, D. B., Chandler-Mather, N., & Betts, J. (2020). Protocol: Psychosocial, pharmacological and legal interventions for improving the psychosocial outcomes of children with substance misusing parents. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 16, e1113. DOI: 10.1002/cl2.1113

Wilson, D. B., Olaghere, A., & Kimbrell, C. S. (2019). Implementing juvenile drug treatment courts: A meta-aggregation of process evaluations. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 0022427819826630.

Wilson, D. B., Brennan, I., & Olaghere, A. (2018). Police-initiated diversion for youth to prevent future delinquent behavior. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 14.

Johnson, D., Wilson, D. B., Maguire, E. R., & Lowrey-Kinberg, B. V. (2017). Race and perceptions of police: Experimental results on the impact of procedural (in) justice. Justice Quarterly, 34(7), 1184-1212.

Mitchell, O., Wilson, D.B., Eggers, A., & MacKenzie, D. L. (2012). Assessing the effectiveness of drug courts on recidivism: A meta-analytic review of traditional and non-traditional drug courts. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(1), 60-71.

Kochel, Tammy, Wilson, David B., & Mastrofski, Stephen. (2011) Effect of Suspect Race on Officers' Arrest Decisions. Criminology, 49(2), 473-512.

Wilson, David B. (2010). Meta-analytic methods for criminology and criminal justice. In A. Piquero & D. Weisburd (eds.), Handbook of Quantitative Criminology (pp. 181-208). New York: Springer.

Wilson, D. B., McClure, D., & Weisburd, D. (2010). Does Forensic DNA Help to Solve Crime? The Benefit of Sophisticated Answers to Naive Questions. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 26(4), 458-469.

Wilson, David B. (2009). Missing a critical piece of the pie: Simple document search strategies inadequate for systematic reviews. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 5(4), 429-440.

Courses Taught

CRIM 315 Research Methods and Analysis in Criminology

CRIM 780 Research Methods

CRIM 782 Statistics I

CRIM 795 Meta-analysis (special topics course)

Dissertations Supervised

Catherine S. Kimbrell, The Impact of Poverty on the Pretrial Process (2019)

David McClure, Understanding Public Tolerance for Justice System Error (2015)

Kirsten Hutzell, The Impact of Interpersonal Bullying and Cyberbullying on School Avoidance (2014)

Anne S. Douds, An Experimental Design Study of Judicial Decision-Making Regarding Compulsory Vaccination Policies in Juvenile Detention Facilities (2012)