- 2014 Elected as a Fellow of College of Fellow, University of Cape Town.
- 2013 American Society of Criminology’s Thorsten Sellin and Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck Award.
- 2007 – 2012 South African National Research Foundation (NRF), A2 Rating.
- 2013 – 2018 South African National Research Foundation (NRF), A1 Rating.
- 2006 – 2010 Listed as the 14th most frequently cited criminological scholar 2006-2010 across five international journals in: Cohn, E. and Iratzoqui, A. (2016) Most-cited Scholars in Five International Criminology Journals 2006-2010. British Journal of Criminology, 56: 602-623.
- 2006 – 2010 Listed as the 10th most frequently cited criminological scholar 2006-2010 across international journals in: Cohn, E., Farrington, D. and Iratzoqui, A. (2014) Most-cited Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice 1986-2010. New York: Springer.
Clifford Shearing 