ASU professor elected to leadership of Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, on track to be its president in 2023

Members of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) elected Arizona State University criminal justice and sociology Professor Anthony Peguero to its leadership.

Peguero, of the ASU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, was elected second vice president of ACJS in balloting conducted in February and will take office April 15. Since its founding in 1963, ACJS is an international association that promotes criminal justice education, research and policy analysis within the discipline of criminal justice to educators and practitioners.

Peguero’s election places him on a leadership track that would install him as the academy’s president in spring 2023.

“I am committed to looking for ways to represent and ensure that ACJS strives by fostering the development of undergraduate and graduate students who are aspiring to be professional, insightful and strong criminologists,” said Peguero, who for three years has served on the board as an at-large trustee. “I will pursue, with other ACJS executive officers and members, to further ACJS efforts to be an organization that is fair, equitable and representative.”

Regents Professor Cassia Spohn, a former School of Criminology and Criminal Justice director, will step down as ACJS president April 15. She said it is a position that is an honor to have held, though the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to the academy during 2020–21.

“It has been a strange year to preside over a professional organization, especially given that the in-person conference for 2021 was canceled,” said Spohn, who will become immediate past president in 2021–22 and continue to serve on the executive board. “Nonetheless, my program co-chairs and I have pivoted to a virtual conference, with the timely theme of ‘Reforming and Transforming Criminal Justice.’”

Foundation Professor and School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Director Jon Gould said the school will be well-represented by Peguero and Spohn on the ACJS board.

“ASU was fortunate this year to attract to our faculty Anthony Peguero, whose research examining youth, crime, schools and immigration makes a significant contribution on a variety of important topics,” Gould said. “We look forward to his contributions as well as those of ACJS’ retiring president, our distinguished colleague, Cassia Spohn.”

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is part of ASU’s Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.