John H. Laub, Director
National Institute of Justice

The Honorable John H. Laub, Ph.D., was nominated by President Barack Obama to be Director of the National Institute of Justice. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 22, 2010.

Before coming to NIJ, Dr. Laub was a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has also served as a Visiting Scholar in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University.

Dr. Laub has coauthored two award-winning books: Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life (Harvard University Press, 1993) and Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 (Harvard University Press, 2003). Both books won several awards, including the Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Crime, Law, and Deviance Section; the Outstanding Book Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences; and the Michael J. Hindelang Book Award from the American Society of Criminology (ASC). In addition, Dr. Laub has authored many research articles in the areas of crime and deviance over the life course, juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice, and the history of criminology.

Dr. Laub was named a fellow of ASC in 1996 and served as ASC's President from 2002 to 2003. In 2005, ASC presented him with its Edwin H. Sutherland Award for outstanding contributions to theory or research in criminology.

Dr. Laub, along with his longtime collaborator Robert Sampson of Harvard University, was a recipient of the 2011 Stockholm Prize in Criminology. Drs. Laub and Sampson received the award for their research showing why and how criminals stop offending.

Dr. Laub received his B.A. from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in criminal justice from the State University of New York at Albany.