Dr. Larry J. Siegel was born in the Bronx in 1947. While dwelling on Jerome Avenue and attending City College of New York (CCNY) in the 1960s, he was swept up in the social and political currents of the time. He became intrigued with the influence modern culture had on individual behavior: Did people shape society or did society shape people? He applied his curiosity in social forces and human behavior to the research of crime and justice. After graduating from CCNY, he attended the criminal justice program at the State College of New York at Albany, earning his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees there.

Professor Siegel started his teaching career at Northeastern University and has also held instructing positions at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, and in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell (UML). Now a Professor Emeritus, he continues to teach courses on criminology and criminal justice in UML’S online master’s degree program. Dr. Siegel has written extensively in the area of crime and justice, including books on juvenile law, delinquency, criminology, corrections, criminal justice, and criminal procedure. He’s a courtroom-certified expert on police conduct and has testified in numerous legal cases.