George L. Kelling

Who is George L. Kelling?

George L. Kelling is an American criminologist, Professor at Rutgers University, a Research Fellow at Harvard University, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He previously taught at Northeastern University.

Dr. Kelling earned his Ph.D. in Social welfare from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1973 under Dr. Alfred Kadushin. Kelling also received an M.S.W. degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a B.A. degree in Philosophy from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He attended Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary to study theology for two years, but earned no degree.

Early in his career Dr. Kelling was a child care counselor and a probation officer, but his professional career has been spent in academia. The author of numerous articles, he developed the Broken Windows Theory with James Q. Wilson and Catherine Coles.