Professor of Social Work
Room 1120
212-851-2228

Craig S. Schwalbe

Dr. Schwalbe works on finding alternatives to incarceration and institutionalization for vulnerable young people who get trapped in the criminal justice system from an early age.


Professor Craig Schwalbe has over a decade of experience in direct practice and administration in public and private agencies serving adults and children with serious mental illnesses and families involved in the child welfare system. At CSSW, Dr. Schwalbe teaches practice skills in foundation-year courses and advanced clinical practice skills in the second-year curriculum.

Dr. Schwalbe’s scholarship focuses on minimizing the use of detention and incarceration for justice-involved youth. He studies the ways juvenile justice systems can identify youths who are at low risk of repeat offending, the ways evidence-based diversion programs can be implemented in community settings to reduce exposure of youths to the juvenile justice system, and which evidence-based probation interventions yield strongest outcomes for justice-involved youth. His research has been funded by UNICEF and the William T. Grant Foundation.

Dr. Schwalbe is a recipient of the William T. Grant Scholars Award and is a contributing author for the 10th edition of the text Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills. He holds a BA from Concordia College, an MSW from Augsburg College, and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.