Alex R. Piquero

Alex R. Piquero is Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar the University of Miami. He is also former Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (appointed by President Biden in June 2022). He was Co-Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology from 2008 to 2013 and Justice Evaluation Journal (2018-2022). Prior to his arrival at the University of Miami in August 2020, he was Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he also served as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences and Director of Social Impact in the Office of Research. Prior to UT-Dallas, he was on the faculties of Florida State University, University of Maryland, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York, University of Florida, Northeastern University, and Temple University. He has published over 5005 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of criminal careers, crime prevention, criminological theory, and quantitative research methods, and has collaborated on several books including Key Issues in Criminal Careers Research: New Analyses from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (Cambridge University Press, co-authored with David P. Farrington and Alfred Blumstein), Handbook of Quantitative Criminology (Springer, co-edited by David Weisburd), and in 2020 he co-authored Developmental Criminology and the Crime-drop: A Comparative Analysis of Criminal Careers in Two Birth Cohorts (Cambridge University Press, with Jason Payne). His work has been cited over 60,000 times (h-index: 131) and he has been ranked as the #1 criminologist in the world since 1996 in terms of scholarly publications in elite criminology/criminal justice journals. His research has also led him to be listed among the world's top 2% of scientists with respect to cited research. In addition to his membership on several editorial boards of journals in criminology and sociology, he has also served as Executive Counselor with the American Society of Criminology, Member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel Evaluating the National Institute of Justice, Member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on A Prioritized Plan to Implement a Developmental Approach in Juvenile Justice Reform, Member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Modernizing the Nation’s Crime Statistics, Member of the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network at Ohio State University, and Member of the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Adolescent Development & Juvenile Justice. Professor Piquero has given congressional testimony on evidence-based crime prevention practices in the area of early-family/parent training programs, and has provided counsel and support to several local, state, national, and international criminal justice agencies, including various police and correctional agencies. In 2015, United States Attorney General Eric Holder appointed him to the Office of Justice Programs Science Advisory Board. In September 2019, Dallas City Mayor Eric Johnson appointed him to the Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot appointed him as a member of the DA’s Urban Crime Initiative. In December 2020, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine F. Rundle appointed Dr. Piquero to the Executive Committee of the Continuing Justice Reform Commission. In March 2021, he was elected to the Council on Criminal Justice. Professor Piquero is past recipient of the American Society of Criminology's Young Scholar (2002) and E-Mail Mentor of the Year (2005) Awards, Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology (2011) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (2011), recipient of the Western Society of Criminology President’s Award (2017), recipient of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Bruce Smith, Sr. Award (2019), recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division of Developmental & Life-Course Criminology of the American Society of Criminology (2020) and has also received numerous teaching awards including the University of Florida's College of Arts & Sciences Teacher of the Year Award (2004), the University of Maryland's Top Terp Teaching Award (2008), the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (2014), as well as the University of Texas at Dallas Diversity Award. In 2018, he was named to The University of Texas System’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Professor Piquero has served on a large number of departmental, school, college, and University committees, including most recently Co-Chair of the UT-Dallas Committee on Qualifications (i.e., University tenure and promotion committee). In August 2015, he was selected by UT-Dallas President Wildenthal to serve on the UT System Working Group for Concealed Carry and organized the UT-Dallas implementation of the new Campus Carry Bill. His research has been featured in several national and international television and newspapers including: The New York Times, Reuters, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Miami Herald, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Pacific Standard Magazine, and the Dallas Morning News, and he is a part of the contributor’s network for The Huffington News and the Dallas Morning News. In February 2016, NBC News Latino profiled him via an exclusive interview with Washington Post syndicated columnist Esther J. Cepeda (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/what-i-ve-learned-our-talk-top-ranked-criminologist-alex-n522046).