Charles Franklin Wellford is an American criminologist, emeritus professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland–College Park.
[1] In 1996, the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice established the Charles Wellford Fellowship in his honor.
He then directed major crime projects at the Westinghouse National Issues Center before moving to work in the Office of the US Attorney General.
In 1981 he rejoined the faculty at the University of Maryland and led it to be recognized as the top ranked department of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the US.
He is known for research on prison culture, sentencing reform, theory testing, crime measurement and variations in the clearance rate of homicides throughout the United States.