Angela Hawken


Angela Hawken is a professor of public policy and director of Litmus at the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University. Her research focuses primarily on drugs, crime, and corruption, and combines experimental and quantitative methods.
She has had a leadership role in evaluations of Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement program, an innovative initiative aimed at reducing crime and drug use, which is becoming a model for other states.

Career

Hawken was a faculty member at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, before moving to the United States in 1998. After receiving her PhD in policy analysis at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, she joined the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University.
Hawken conducted the statewide cost-benefit analysis of California Proposition 36, which produced its final report in 2008.
Hawken also led the randomized controlled trial of Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement program. This program was initiated by Judge Steven Alm in 2004. Its distinctive feature is that it seeks to reduce crime and drug use through a swift-and-certain-sanctions model to manage high-risk probationers. Interest in the HOPE program has led to hearings on Capitol Hill, and discussions in the White House. The US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske identified HOPE as the most promising initiative that "not only prevents recidivism, but also actively assists individuals to transition to productive lives." President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2014 provides $10 million for HOPE probation.
Hawken consults regularly for the United States Department of State and the United Nations. She advised the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, a State Department-supported think tank in Tbilisi, Georgia. She worked for the State Department on counternarcotics policy for Afghanistan. She wrote background papers for United Nations Development Programme regional reports on Asia and the Pacific, developing measurement instruments on corruption and gender equality. She also worked with the UNDP on a system to monitor corruption in Afghanistan.

Selected publications

Books
Articles, Chapters and Working Papers
Reports and Short Articles