UM professor and renowned Cuban-American criminologist tapped for Biden’s administration
President Joe Biden appointed University of Miami professor Alex Piquero, a highly regarded criminology expert, to head the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.
Piquero joined UM in August 2020 as a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology. He will start his new post on Monday, Aug. 15, according to a Wednesday press release.
“This is an honor of a lifetime,” said Piquero, 52. “In academia, I’ve had the great fortune of working with students, faculty, colleagues and seeing them succeed, but when you get a call to serve the nation in this regard, to be the director of the crime and justice data for the U.S. — I’ve used those data for my entire career — it’s kind of one of those moments when you’re looking in the mirror and going: ’This is it.’ ”
“This is a big challenge, but it’s an incredible opportunity. I’m just really humbled. I’m on Cloud 9,” he said Thursday in an interview with the Herald.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics collects, analyzes and shares information about crime, crime victims and those who engage in criminal activity, according to its website. It also provides financial and technical support to state, local and tribal governments to inform policy.
Piquero said he looks forward to producing timely, accurate and objective data on crime and justice — and then delivering that data in a usable and accessible way.
Piquero’s parents migrated to the U.S. from Cuba in the early 1960s; he was born in the Washington area. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland College Park.
He became a crime scholar as a result of a “complete happenstance,” he said. As an undergraduate student, he needed an extra class and casually registered to take an introduction to criminal justice course. The teacher “made the topic come alive,” he said, and he fell in love.
“Taking that class with that instructor changed my life,” he said.
He’s passionate about researching “Why do people do what they do, why do people obey the law and why don’t other people obey the law, and how do we intervene and prevent all of those things?”
Before UM, Piquero taught at Temple University, Northeastern University, the University of Florida, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the University of Maryland, Florida State University and the University of Texas at Dallas.
He also currently holds a faculty position at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
His wife, Nicole Leeper Piquero, works at UM as a criminology professor.
This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 2:13 PM.
