Anthony Petrosino serves as Director of the WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center, focusing on high-quality research to identify solutions that promote positive community and school environments. He is also Associate Director of the Health & Justice Program, and Senior Research Fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy.
Petrosino has more than 30 years of experience conducting research in areas such as violence prevention, school safety, and juvenile justice with an emphasis in program evaluation and research synthesis. He co-directs a number of federally funded research studies, including randomized controlled trials, for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Prior to joining WestEd, Petrosino helped develop the Campbell Collaboration (C2), an organization that conducts reviews of research on the effects of social interventions. For example, he led the C2’s pilot review (on the “Scared Straight” delinquency prevention program), and his paper based on that analysis won the Pro Humanitate Literary Award from the North American Child Welfare Resource Center in 2003. Petrosino was the Founding Coordinator for C2’s Crime & Justice Group, receiving a Distinguished Service Award for his service.
He has published over 150 juried articles, book chapters, and other publications. He serves on the Nevada Governor’s Task Force on School Safety and on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Experimental Criminology. Petrosino received WestEd’s Paul D. Hood Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field, and was named Honorary Fellow by the Academy of Experimental Criminology.