Peter Reuter (born December 4, 1944) is an American criminologist and economist. He is a professor in both the School of Public Policy and in the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland. In 2020, he was appointed University of Maryland Distinguished Professor. Since 1985, his research has focused mainly on alternative drug policies in the United States and Western Europe. In 1988, he was described by Peter Kerr of the New York Times as "one of the few economists who studies illegal drug markets."