Jay Albanese, Ph.D.

Professor
Criminal Justice

• Organized crime
• Professional ethics
• Transnational crime
• Corruption

EXPERTISE

• Organized crime
• Corruption
• Professional ethics
• Transnational crime

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Criminal Justice, Rutgers University
M.A., Criminal Justice, Rutgers University
B.A., Sociology/Natural Science, Niagara University

TEACHING

Organized crime, Professional Ethics and Liability, Cybercrime, Ethics & Decision-making in Criminal Justice, Comparative Criminal Justice, Introduction to Criminal Justice.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Transnational crime -organized crime, corruption, human trafficking, cybercrime; 
• Ethics - white-collar crime, public corruption, ethical accountability, gambling and crime; 
• Emerging crimes — intellectual property theft, environmental crimes, new forms of fraud, and ethical dilemmas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Albanese served as chief of the National Institute of Justice's International Center. The NIJ is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, responsible for developing and executing transnational crime and justice research and evaluation, as well as coordinating with United Nations efforts in these areas. He is a past president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, former executive director of the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime and served on the executive board of the American Society of Criminology, where he now serves as UN Liaison.

Dr. Albanese is author and editor of 24 books on organized crime, ethics, corruption, transnational crime, and criminal justice. He has delivered invited presentations in 31 countries. He is recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from Virginia Commonwealth University, The Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia, VCU's Elske Smith Distinguished Lecturer Award, the Freda Adler Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of International Criminology for significant contributions to criminology internationally, the Gerhard Mueller Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences International Section, and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime.

Dr. Albanese has also served as chair of the international divisions of both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. He was a visiting professor at the University of Manchester (UK), Simon Fraser University (Canada), and the University of Porto (Portugal). He is a fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and co-founder of Criminologists without Borders.

SELECTED BOOKS

Professional Ethics in Criminal Justice: Being Ethical When No One is Looking (5th ed.)
Pearson/Prentice Hall (2025).

My Search for Meaning: A Professor, His Students, and 12 Great Conversations. 
McMaster Media Publishing (2025). Audiobook @Audible.com, 2025.

Racial Equity, COVID and Public Policy: The Triple Pandemic. co-editors E.L. Harper-Anderson, J. Albanese, S. Gooden. Routledge (2023).

We Are Not as Ethical as We Think We Are.
Great Ideas Publishing (2021). Audiobook @Audible.com, 2025.

Critical Thinking about Criminal Justice: Getting to the Truth of the Matter. (2019).

Organized Crime: From the Mob to Transnational Organized Crime. Routledge (2015).

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems. (5th ed.). (with H. Dammer) Wadsworth (2014).

Transnational Organized Crime: An Overview of Six Continents (ed. with P. Reichel)
Sage Publications (2014).

Encyclopedia of Criminology & Criminal Justice. (Editor-in-chief, 5-volumes) Wiley (2014).

Transnational Crime and the 21st Century: Criminal Enterprise, Corruption, and Opportunity.  Oxford University Press (2011).

SELECTED VIDEO AND PODCASTS

American Scandal Podcast for episode on organized crime, featuring the "Mafia Cops" case in New York, and trends in organized crime.  American Scandal is an investigative podcast focused on high-profile American scandals including well-known cases of corporate frauds, political corruption, criminal conspiracies, and organized crime. The interview appears in Mafia Cops: The New Underworld (Season 75; Episode 5; June. 2026). https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mafia-cops-the-new-underworld/id1435516849?i=1000773745257

BBC interview on BBC's Radio Program "More or Less" on the topic "Do US crime statistics miss out the most violent cities?" https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00244l3  (2024).

Podcast: Interviewed on Fraudish Podcast (formerly Great Women in Fraud) hosted by Kelly Paxton (former investigator), on the subject of fraud, white collar crime, and gambling. (2023). 

Radio and Podcast: Interviewed on the radio program With Good Reason by host Sarah McConnell on organized crime, Ukraine, and the international situation. The program airs weekly on 114 public radio stations, Soundcloud, and Spotify. (2022).

Video: International Cooperation on Crimes against the Environment. Contribution to United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Expert Discussions on Crimes that Affect the Environment. 1st intercessional meeting. Criminologists Without Borders. (2022).

Video: Interviewed for Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice Interview Series (18 mins.) Jay Albanese (2022).

Podcast: interviewed as a guest on The CopDoc Podcast: Aiming for Excellence in Leadership for Policing. Hosted by Dr. Steve Morreale, the podcast discussed ethics, integrity, and accountability in police work and supervision. (2021). 

Video: Why Experience SHERLOC? (2020). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime public service announcement for its new informational portal. 

Video: Are We Facing an Ethics Crisis? (2018). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime developed a global curriculum on Integrity & Ethics under the Education 4 Justice initiative to develop open-access content for use by instructors and students around the world. Athens, Greece.  

Video: Without Education People Do Not Realize that Small Acts can Result in Larger Harms. (2017). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Champions of Rule of Law. Vienna, Austria.