DR GERRY LYNCH had intended to work in clinics and hospitals when he received his doctorate in clinical psychology from New York University. But he started teaching at the College of Police Science in New York and liked it.
"I found that police wanted to understand human behaviour. They saw it in the raw suicide, wife beating, exhibitionists but they didn't understand what motivated people to do that. I was able to help them, and they found it very satisfying."
So Dr Lynch stayed at the college now the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and rose through the academic hierarchy to become president in 1976.
John Jay, part of the City University of New York, describes itself as "a liberal arts college" as well as a centre for the study of criminal justice. With 10,000 students in the city and a branch campus in Puerto Rico, it helps organise training programmes for police forces around the world.
"One of my big interests is human dignity and the police, so I have been very interested in questions of police misconduct and police ethics," he says.
He finds police forces are also concerned about the issue. When John Jay recently helped set up courses at the International Law Enforcement Training Academy in Budapest, the course on human dignity attracted the most interest.
"Police forces want to know what's right and wrong about our own behaviour?" he says. "And it's right that they should, because in many countries a police officer has the right to kill you. If he thinks you are endangering his life or somebody else's life, he can shoot you and kill you.
According to Dr Lynch, a society should be concerned about the level of training it gives to its police force.
"Look how much training we give a surgeon, and he only has a scalpel. The police officer, very often, has a gun. So, the finger that pulls the trigger should be motivated by the brain that has been educated."
Dr Lynch also has a role outside the college he has served on a number of New York state commissions and panels examining legal issues. He chaired a group which advised the governor on what might happen if the citizens decided, in a referendum, to change the state law and allow casinos to operate legally.
After examining the effects of casinos elsewhere, be determined that "the negatives outweighed the benefits". Casinos are "the best way to launder drug money," he says. Criminals' cash can be spent, lost and won again, and become untraceable. Unexplained income can be attributed to winnings. There is also the social aspect casinos profit from people losing their earnings and compulsive gambling can ruin families, he says.
Born in New York to parents of Irish descent, Dr Lynch is married with two children. His son and daughter, both in their 20s, have majored in history.
Aged 59, he jogs every morning, the normal route being through Central Park in Manhattan from his home to the main college building. The daily programme for the international crime conference at Dublin Castle this week, organised by the college along with the Garda and the Department of Justice, features a "fitness walk/run" at 7.30 a.m.