Join authors Brandon Welsh, PhD & Scott Podolsky. MD while they discuss their book, Between Medicine and Criminology: Richard Cabot and the Making of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study

In 1935, Richard Cabot (1868-1939; HMS 1892), a renowned physician and professor of clinical medicine and social ethics at Harvard, founded the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study to help young, underprivileged boys from engaging in delinquency and embarking on a life of crime. Described as character development through positive role models, the prevention intervention enrolled 650 boys from Cambridge and Somerville and operated as a randomized controlled trial from 1939-45. Over the next 30 years, three major follow-ups would be undertaken, producing a wealth of knowledge on the development and prevention of offending over the life-course. As the earliest RCT in criminology, one of the earliest trials of a social intervention, and the longest running trial in the Western world, the CSYS is a famous and consequential study in the annals of criminology. But Cabot was not a criminologist. Instead, he worked at the interface of medicine and the social sciences, bringing to bear his important grounding in social ethics and engaging with leading academicians.

Drawing on extensive archival materials and published works, Between Medicine and Criminology is the first book about the history of the making of the CSYS, as well as what this history holds for modern criminology. It interrogates and describes the personal, professional, and institutional influences that led Cabot to develop the study; the social and intellectual contexts during the 1920s and 1930s that helped shape the study’s novel and rigorous evaluation design; how the operation of the study and changes from the original plan may have contributed to its ineffectiveness in preventing delinquency and later offending; and the impacts—and limitations—of this iconic study.

Dr. Welsh is the Dean’s Professor of Criminology, Co-Director of the Crime Prevention Lab, and Director of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study at Northeastern University. From 2022-2024, he was Visiting Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the prevention of delinquency, crime, and interpersonal violence (via developmental, environmental, and community approaches), developmental origins of offending, and evidence-based social policy. He is an author or editor of 13 books, including Between Medicine and Criminology: Richard Cabot and the Making of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study (Oxford University Press, 2025) and The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Crime and Justice Policy (Oxford University Press, 2024). Dr. Welsh is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Experimental Criminology. He received his Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Cambridge.

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We are committed to making this event accessible to all participants. The space is wheelchair accessible, microphones will be used for speakers, and assistive listening devices are available for use. Please reach out to countwayoutreach@hms.harvard.edu if you have any accessibility needs or questions.