Alex R. Piquero

Alex R. Piquero is Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar the University of Miami and previously served as the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), one of the nation’s thirteen federal statistical agencies (appointed by President Biden, June 2022). 

During his Directorship of BJS, he oversaw a budget of over $90 million dollars, including several dozens of data collections on various crime and justice topics including police-citizen contacts, and worked hand-hand with a dedicated team of over fifty persons. He started several new data collections, initiated new publication mediums, engaged in several inter-agency collaborations, elevated and promoted exceptionally qualified women and persons of color to leadership positions, spoke at the White House on the importance of Hispanic educational excellence, and co-wrote a report to President Biden on criminal justice and policing statistics about the importance of disaggregated data. 

As the first Hispanic to lead BJS, he also championed the importance of diversity in the federal statistical system as well as the necessary funding and support of the two science agencies within the Office of Justice Programs / Department of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice, to better inform crime and justice policy. Prior to joining 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. He has also served on the faculties of Monash University, 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. 

Professor Piquero served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology from 2008 to 2013 and Justice Evaluation Journal from 2018 to 2022. He has published over 550 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of criminal careers, race/immigration and crime, domestic violence, crime prevention, criminological theory, and quantitative research methods, and has authored several books including Key Issues in Criminal Careers Research: New Analyses from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (Cambridge University Press, with David P. Farrington and Alfred Blumstein), Handbook of Quantitative Criminology (Springer, with David Weisburd), and 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=135). A 2019 article in Plos Biology identified him as being included among the top 100,000 most-cited scientists in the world. In November 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 he was recognized by the Web of Science Group as one of the world’s most influential researchers (i.e., a Highly Cited Researcher). 

Professor Piquero has 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 National Academies of Sciences Committee on Cybercrime Classification and Measurement, Steering Committee Member of the National Academies of Science Panel on Approaches for Assessing and Communicating the Quality of National Statistics, Board Member of the Committee on Law & Justice (National Academies of Sciences), Member of the U.S. Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations, 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, US Attorney General Eric Holder appointed him to the Office of Justice Programs Science Advisory Board. In September 2019, Dallas 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 him 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), the University of Miami Provost Award for Research Excellence (2023), 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. His research, opinion pieces, and commentary have been featured in 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, and the Dallas Morning News. NBC News Latino profiled him via an exclusive interview with Washington Post syndicated columnist Esther J. Cepeda.