Robert Apel (pronounced AY-pull) received his Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland in 2004 and joined Rutgers University Newark in 2011. His expertise is in policy problems in criminal justice, with an emphasis on the labor market, deterrence-based policies, and prison reentry challenges. His recent and in-progress research explores the work-crime relationship, the impact of a criminal record on employment and wages, the impact of incarceration versus community sanctions on recidivism, the impact of early prison release on recidivism, police-citizen interactions as determinants of trust and legitimacy in law enforcement, and the cross-national association of police contact experiences with general wellbeing. He has served or currently serves on the editorial boards of five leading criminological journals: Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Criminology and Public Policy. He is also a former associate editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology (2014–2018).