Dr. John Cencich is a Professor Emeritus and criminologist at Pennsylvania Western University, where he served on the faculty for 23 years. He specialized in constitutional policing, organized crime, and international criminal law and justice, including terrorism.
Prior to entering academia, he retired after 20 years in law enforcement and criminal investigation, including a special attachment to Scotland Yard. He then served a four-year appointment with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. As the senior American war crimes investigator in the Office of the Prosecutor, he led one of the largest international criminal investigations since the Second World War. His cases encompassed war crimes and crimes against humanity—including murder, extermination, sexual assault, hostage-taking, and torture—perpetrated by high-ranking political, military, police, intelligence, and organized crime figures.
Professor Cencich was the co-architect of the joint criminal enterprise (JCE) prosecution theory, which became the principal legal framework for the landmark indictment and prosecution of the first sitting head of state for atrocities committed in his official capacity as president.
He is the founder of the Pennsylvania Center for Investigative and Forensic Sciences, which conducts research, teaching, and consultations focused on cold-case homicide strategies and wrongful convictions. Upon his retirement, it was renamed the Cencich Center for Investigative and Forensic Sciences.
At Pitt Law, Professor Cencich integrates his extensive real-world experience investigating international war criminals and other atrocity crimes with his scholarship in teaching and learning. His seminar in International Criminal Law explores topics including torture, terrorism, piracy, and transnational organized crime. His course on the Law of Armed Conflict examines the crime of aggression (jus ad bellum) as well as serious violations arising from the conduct of hostilities—whether international or non-international in character (jus in bello).
- JSD, Notre Dame Law School
- LLM, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
- LLM, Kent Law School, University of Kent at Canterbury
- MS, Virginia Commonwealth University
- BS, St. Paul's College
