Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1951,[3] Cullen enrolled at Bridgewater State College in 1968, hoping to avoid getting drafted into the Vietnam War by getting a grade point average of 2.0 or higher.[4] He graduated in 1972 with a B.A. in psychology. He later received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1974 and 1979, respectively. Both his graduate degrees were in sociology and education. He taught at Western Illinois University before joining the University of Cincinnati in 1982 as an associate professor. In 1987, he became a full professor at the University of Cincinnati, and in 1993, he became a distinguished professor there. He became an emeritus professor at the University of Cincinnati in 2015.[2]
Cullen became a fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) in 1989, and served as its president from 1993 to 1994. In 1996, he received the ACJS's Bruce Smith, Sr. Award, followed by the Founders Award in 2002, making him one of only four people to receive all three of the ACJS's awards. He served as president of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) from 2003 to 2004. In 2010, he received the ASC's Edwin H. Sutherland Award.[1] Cullen was a winner of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for 2022.[5]
