Criminological Theory: The Essentials

Stephen G. Tibbetts, currently a Professor at California State University, San Bernardino, has been pursuing an understanding of criminal offending for over the past two decades. He has attempted to discover the extent to which individuals' inherent dispositions and attitudinal traits contribute to their offending decisions, especially in relation to other factors, such as demographic, developmental, and situational factors. Dr. Tibbetts' research has included work on the differences between men and women in their decisions to commit deviant behavior, as well as their perceptions of risk and consequences of getting caught. His additional research interests include the effects of perinatal disorders as an influence in future criminality, the etiology of white-collar crime, and gang intervention. Dr. Tibbetts has published nine books and more than 50 scholarly papers examining various issues in criminology. He received the 2011 Outstanding Professor Award at CSU, San Bernardino. He previously worked extensively as an Officer of the Court in providing recommendations for dispositions of numerous juvenile court cases from 1997 to 2008.

Alex R. Piquero is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar the University of Miami and Professor of Criminology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He was Co-Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology from 2008 to 2013 and currently serves as Editor of Justice Evaluation Journal.

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 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 475 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of criminal careers, race/immigration and crime, 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 48,000 times (h-index=116). 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 and November 2020, he was recognized by the Web of Science Group as one of the world's most influential researchers (i.e., a Highly Cited Researcher).

He 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 Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network at Ohio State University, and Member of the MacArthur Foundation′s Research Network on Adolescent Development & Juvenile Justice. He 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) 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 has 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 (https: //www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/what-i-ve-learned-our-talk-top-ranked-criminologist-alex-n522046).