Lawrence W. Sherman

Lawrence W. Sherman
Sherman in 2023
Born (1949-10-25) October 25, 1949 (age 75)
Alma mater
OrganizationsBenchmark Cambridge

Lawrence W. Sherman (born October 25, 1949) is an experimental criminologist and police educator who defined evidence-based policing. Since October 2024 he has served as Chief Executive Officer of Benchmark Cambridge, a global police reform organisation. From 2022-24 he was Chief Scientific Officer of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard, and since 2017 he has served as the Wolfson Professor of Criminology Emeritus at the University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology.

Sherman's use of randomized controlled experiments to study deterrence and crime prevention has led him to examine such wide-ranging issues as domestic violence, saturation patrol, gun violence, drug-dealing houses, and police-led restorative justice with reintegrative shaming. He has collaborated with over 30 police and justice agencies around the world, and been credited as a key founder of the field of experimental criminology. Since 2017, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing.