Robert Worden

Specialization: Criminal Justice Policy and Administration; Policing

Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1986, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Robert Worden is a political scientist whose research revolves around questions about the accountability and responsiveness of criminal justice institutions to the public. Thus his research includes both basic research--concerned with explaining the behavior of criminal justice actors in terms of political, organizational, and social influences--and applied research--concerned with the implementation and outcomes of criminal justice policies and programs.

Most of his research has focused on the police and/or drug control policy. He is currently engaged in a constellation of projects that examine the delivery of police services in Albany. He is also the site director of the Capital District Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) project, and he directs the research for Project Safe Neighborhoods in the Northern District of New York. He is also a member of the National Research Council’s Committee to Review Research on Police Policies and Practices, and a gubernatorial appointee to the New York State Law Enforcement Accreditation Council. His recent publications include “Police Officers’ Attitudes, Behavior, and Supervisory Influences: An Analysis of Problem-solving” (with Robin Shepard Engel, in Criminology, 2003) and “The Use and Abuse of Force by Police” (with Shelagh Catlin, in Policing and Misconduct, Prentice-Hall, 2002).