PHILADELPHIA-- More than 1,100 people from 65 nations are expected to gather on the University of Pennsylvania campus for the 14th World Congress of Criminology Conference Aug. 7-11. Coordinated by Penn's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, in collaboration with the International Society of Criminology, the conference,"Preventing Crime & Promoting Justice: Voices for Change," will examine issues such as gun violence, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, mentoring  at-risk youth and restorative justice.   Sessions will be translated simultaneously in French, Spanish and English.

Highlights of the Congress include 12 world premieres of systematic reviews of the effectiveness of crime-prevention programs, advanced statistical workshops on trajectory analysis and data mining and an all day "crime prevention summit" with 50 life-sentence inmates from Graterford Prison.

Sweden's minister of justice, Thomas Bodstrom, will give the closing ceremony address Aug. 11, making a major announcement about a global criminology project with the University of Pennsylvania.

Speakers from Penn include conference organizer Lawrence Sherman, president of the International Society of Criminology; Elijah Anderson, professor of sociology; and Richard Gelles, dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice.

Detailed information about the conference is available at www.worldcriminology2005.org.