Irvin Waller

Irvin Waller is a Full Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and consults with governments across the world on how to reduce crime and protect victims. He holds a PhD in Law and Criminology from the University of Cambridge.

Professor Waller has received recognition from Canada and several European governments as the founding Executive Director of the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime affiliated with the United Nations. He developed proposals for the Safer Cities program of the UN-Habitat and has participated with the World Health Organization in the implementation of its Health and Violence report. He was a key adviser to the group of experts that prepared the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime, accepted in 2002, and has worked on national commissions in Canada, South Africa and the US.

Professor Waller is currently President of the International Organization for Victim Assistance. He has been President and Secretary General of the World Society of Victimology. He was on the Board of the International Bureau of Children´s Rights when it spearheaded the adoption of UN Guidelines on Justice for Child Victims and Witnesses in 2005. He served as a Director General in the Ministry of the Solicitor General of Canada in the 1970s, where his division provided evidence to support the abolition of the death penalty, dangerous offender legislation, gun control, preventive policing and initial actions to prevent violence against women.

Professor Waller has received awards from the US National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) and from the World Federation for Mental Health for his work leading to the UN adoption of the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. He has published extensively on victim issues, crime prevention, and incarceration and has recently published a book entitled Less Law, More Order: The Truth about Reducing Crime.

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