The Jerry Lee Center of Criminology

About Jerry Lee

	Jerry Lee President, B101/WBEB FM Radio Founder, Jerry Lee Center of Criminology President, Jerry Lee Foundation	On this page
		About Jerry Lee
		Jerry Lee Foundation
		Recent Accomplishments
		Timeline
		The Vision Behind the Jerry Lee Center

About Jerry Lee Lifetime optimist and longtime Philadelphian, Jerry Lee has committed his life to improving the global community through the promotion of social science research into the causes of such social problems as poverty and crime. His dedication to reducing human misery and injustice has resulted in extraordinary achievements in Criminology, and Social Science education in general. Last year, Jerry Lee was nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate as a member of the National Board of Education Sciences, the governing body of the Institute of Education Sciences, the independent research arm of the United States Department of Education. He was named to the National Advisory Board of the Salvation Army in 1998, and received the "Great Friends to Kids" Philanthropy Award from the Please Touch Museum in 1997. Jerry Lee is also President and Partner of the last independent major metropolitan area top-ranked radio station, B101 (WBEB-FM) Philadelphia. He is on the Board of the Broadcasters' Foundation and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2004.
	In October 2005, the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia honored Jerry Lee and Colin Powell with distinguished awards for their outstanding leadership in public service.	Colin Powell (left) and Jerry Lee (right), just before receiving their awards, with Lawrence Sherman, Director of the Jerry Lee Center.
Jerry Lee Foundation The Jerry Lee Foundation is a philanthropy dedicated primarily to reducing crime and enhancing education through research on what works to achieve these goals. The Jerry Lee Foundation is committed to solving social problems associated with poverty, especially in American inner cities which suffer from concentrated poverty. The foundation’s special concerns are elementary education and crime, and its major strategy is to support the cause of research, to find out what works, what doesn’t work, and what may be promising. It accomplishes this goal, in part, by supporting the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, which produces major discoveries about the causes and prevention of crime, leading the way towards a safer and more democratic world. Since its inception, the Jerry Lee Foundation has been an active supporter of major crime research initiatives, including the ongoing Jerry Lee Program in Randomized Controlled Trials in Restorative Justice— a program which began in 1994 at the Australian National University in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police, and and is now the world's largest program of randomized controlled trials of crime prevention and justice. In 2000, Jerry Lee founded the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, with Lawrence W. Sherman (Founding Chair, Department of Criminology) as director. The Jerry Lee Center’s goal is to bring together outstanding criminologists from around the world to further the discipline as a multi-disciplinary science in research, education and public service. The Jerry Lee Foundation supported this center with an inital gift of $5 million, and continues to be a major donor. The Jerry Lee Foundation also funded two assistant professorships in the Criminology Department of the University of Pennsylvania.
Recent Accomplishments In August of 2005, The Jerry Lee Center of Criminology hosted the International Society's 14'th World Congress of Criminology, at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event drew over 1100 participants from over 64 nations, and promoted the advancement of criminology around the world. For more information on this event, visit http://worldcriminology2005.org. The Jerry Lee Foundation supports the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, in cooperation with the Swedish Ministry of Justice. The Jerry Lee Center of Criminology manages the program coordination of the Stockholm Prize Symposium, in cooperation with the Swedish National Council on Crime Prevention. The first Stockholm Prize will be awarded at the Stockholm City Hall, June 17th, 2006, in conjunction with the First Annual Stockholm Prize Symposium, which will be held at Stockholm University June 15-17th, 2006. For details of past and ongoing research at the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, please see http://www.sas.upenn.edu/jerrylee/research.htm
A Brief History of Jerry Lee 1960 BA in Economics from Youngstown University 1970 first elected to the Board of the National Association of Broadcasters 1982 created the Broadcast Industry Council to Improve American Productivity, which spearheaded national campaigns for literary, productivity and exports. 1985 was a member of a nine-person delegation, which signed a quality accord with Mainland China on behalf of the American Society for Quality Control. The delegation included the heads of quality control for IBM and Polaroid 1987 received the first of two of the President's Private Sector Initiative Awards on behalf of The Broadcast Productivity Council 1989 received the second President's Private Sector Initiative Award 1995 initiates major learning program. To help the Philadelphia school system significantly reduce the number of 7th graders who are held back each year, Jerry Lee develops a pilot program using customized interactive, multimedia to improve each student's weak areas. 1997 named "Person of the Year" by the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia and inducted into the Pioneers "Hall of Fame." August 1997, asked to serve as Head of the Advisory Board of the University of Maryland's School of Criminology Preventing Crime Program January 1998, named to the National Advisory Board of The Salvation Army 1999 elected Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Greater Philadelphia Salvation Army 1999 elected Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Fels Center of Government at the University of Pennsylvania 1999 elected to the Board of the Philadelphia Police Foundation 2000 established the Jerry Lee Center for Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. The Center will be the foremost organization in research and publicizing crime prevention programs. 2001 member of the Board of the National Association of Broadcasters. Jerry served as a Board member on and off for 17 of the past years 31. 2001 inducted into the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame. October 2005, received the Others Award of the Salvation Army (details) back to top
THE VISION BEHIND THE JERRY LEE CENTER: My lifelong interest in the issue of crime found a turning point at a dinner with a criminologist. One comment kept coming back to me - "We don't know what works to prevent crime." I found online mentions of a study, "What Works, What Doesn't and What's Promising" that Congress had mandated in 1997. It showed 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. One of this study's authors was Professor Larry Sherman, an internationally respected criminologist. It was through meetings with Dr. Sherman that I learned of the basic problems in crime prevention. There is little or no research and no way to disseminate information to those who need it - law enforcement, elected officials, the media. This sounded like something a foundation could take on and I had recently set up the Jerry lee Foundation. But as I became more familiar with the issues involved it was clear that a full-time effort was needed and so the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology was established at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Sherman as Director. The mission of the Center is to produce major discoveries about the causes and prevention of crime, showing how to make a safer and more democratic world. - Jerry Lee
back to top