Peter Scharf

Peter Scharf received his doctorate (ED.D.) from Harvard University. His dissertation (Lawrence Kohlberg advisor) explored moral development, criminal thinking and change models among young offenders. He has published eight books including Badge and the Bullet (Greenwood), Towards a Just Correctional System (Jossey-Bass) and a Guide to Crafting JIS Performance Measures (OJP).

Scharf is a Professor at the LSU School of Public Health and the Institute for Public Health and Justice. He currently is conducting assessments of several funded projects involving reducing mass incarceration while assuring successful offender re-integration. These include the New Orleans MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice initiative, a Legislatively funded research study on 17-year-old youth in the criminal justice system, a Bureau of Justice Assistance demonstration study of integrated treatment for offenders with co-occurring disorders and a demonstration project seeking to assess the effectiveness of evidence based offender care. He won the Undergraduate Outstanding Teaching award in 2012 and 2013 at the Tulane University School of Public Health. Scharf presented to the House Crime Sub-Committee (Bobby Scott, Chair) regarding violent crime research at 2007, 2012, and 2013 Congressional Hearings.