Penn Dedicates Jerry Lee Center for Criminology

The Jerry Lee Center for Criminology, the exciting new multi-disciplinary resource that is turning crime-fighting into a science, was officially dedicated on October 15, 2001. Jerry Lee, President of WBEB 101.1 FM, established the Center a year ago with a $5 million gift from the Lee Foundation to "produce major discoveries about the causes and prevention of crime, showing how to make a safer and more democratic world."

Dr. Lawrence W. Sherman (r), director of the new Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, together with the Center's benefactor, Jerry Lee, presented former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno with the first Jerry Lee Prize for Research-Based Federal Crime Prevention. The presentation was part of the Center's official dedication, which was held in October.

Since that time, the Center has attracted an additional $7 million. The idea for the Lee Center took shape when Jerry Lee, who had a lifelong interest in the problem of crime, met the noted criminologist Lawrence Sherman, Penn's Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations and the Director of the Fels Center of Government. Through his research, Dr. Sherman had discovered "how fragmented crime prevention measures have become coupled with a lack of research into the effectiveness of the hundreds of crime prevention programs that eat up billions of dollars every year." Dr. Sherman and Mr. Lee soon came to the mutual realization that Penn, as a world-renowned pioneer in criminology, could make a difference on crime by conducting the necessary research and disseminating the results to law enforcement agencies, elected officials, and the media.

President Judith Rodin could not agree more. Addressing an enthusiastic audience at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theater, Dr. Rodin made the Center's dedication speech following welcoming remarks by School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel H. Preston. Among the many law enforcement officers and criminologists who spoke were Pennsylvania Congressman Chakah Fattah; Sir Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of the 7,000 Thames Valley Police; and Commander Stephen Roberts of New Scotland Yard.

Highlighting the event was the presentation of the first Jerry Lee Prizes for Research-Based Crime Prevention to former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney. They and their colleagues expressed gratitude for the valuable allies they are gaining in the 23 Senior Fellows who comprise the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the Fels Center.

The dedication ceremony was followed by a symposium featuring scholars from Penn, the University of Maryland, Rutgers University, the University of London, Cambridge University, the Australian National University, and Hebrew University.

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