Boston Criminologist Gershon Ben Keren

Gershon Ben Keren is a criminologist, based in Boston, Massachusetts, who has been working in the security sector since 1990. He started his career in the UK and Europe and since then has taught and trained people is self-protection, self-defense and Krav Maga internationally, including Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He holds two master’s degrees: one in Criminology & Criminal Psychology (University of Essex), and the other one in Psychology (Newcastle University). He is an active member of the APA (American Psychological Association), the ASC (American Society of Criminology) and the IACA ( International Association of Crime Analysts) and continues his education with each organization.

His main area of interest within Criminology is that of Environmental Criminology. This is the study of spatial and temporal factors that affect and elicit offending e.g., why do certain crimes tend to occur in certain, specific places at certain times etc. Crime hotspots in Boston tend to be steady over time e.g., some 5% of Boston’s street-corners and block faces generated 74% of fatal and non-fatal shootings between 1980 and 2008 (Braga, 2017). Rather than looking at the criminality of offenders, such as the socio-economic factors that motivate offenders etc., environmental criminology looks at the factors that cause a criminal incident e.g., the levels of natural surveillance, the existence of escape routes, the presence of suitable targets etc. When this is understood crime and violent crime becomes much easier to predict and avoid. Those who train in both his public and corporate classes/seminars are introduced to this research in a practical and applicable manner.

Gershon is a 5th Degree Black Belt in Krav Maga, was awarded a 3rd degree Black Belt in Hisardut, and has a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Judo (a combat sport in which he has won regional and national titles). He originally started training Krav Maga in Israel in 1993, completing his first instructor course with the IKMF (International Krav Maga Federation) under Eyal Yanilov and Amnon Darsa. He has trained with many of Imi Lichtenfeld’s (the individual credited with the creation of the approach) original black belts including Miki Assulin, Avi Moyal, and Haim Gidon etc. In 2010 he was inducted into the Museum of Israeli Martial Arts by Dr Dennis Hanover, in Herzliya, Israel. As well as practicing and teaching Krav Maga he has written three Amazon Best-Selling books on Krav Maga and has been writing the weekly Krav Maga Blog since 2010.

He has worked in a number of security roles since the early nineteen-nineties, including working in bar and door security. This has given him a first-hand appreciation of what violence in these settings look like. Experiences that combined with the academic research he is exposed to allow him to have a realistic understanding of what actual violence looks like, how verbal disputes and conflicts can escalate, along with the knowledge of how to avoid violence through prediction and de-escalation etc. His approach to finding solutions to violence both physical and non-physical is evidentially based. If you are interested in training with him at his greater-Boston school please click here, and/or if you are interested in any of his corporate services and training click here.