Joseph Persichini Jr., 54, is the Washington region’s top cop. He is in charge of nearly 1,600 men and women who work for the District’s FBI field office. His team has brought down jewelry thieves, loan sharks and sex offenders, but Persichini has also worked with hundreds of local teens to give them the hope and integrity most criminals he pursues didn’t have.

Do you belong to a specific faith?

I was born and raised Catholic. I went to a Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, and a Jesuit college. That’s part of my upbringing; that’s how I was brought up in the world. I still am a practicing Catholic, and my children went to Catholic high school, too. So I guess you’d say yeah, I do.

Who inspired your spiritual development?

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There was a priest in our grade school in Buffalo, N.Y.: Father McCarthy. He was the all-hands-on type — came into school as the assistant pastor and he soon started coaching the basketball team and the football team. He’d take us into the city and we’d play against the city kids. He’d set up boxing matches in the city. He believed sports were a way to build young men, but now you can see what he was doing: He was exposing us to all walks of life. He’s still alive — just celebrated his 65th year as a priest.

What inspires you to continue what must often feel like an endless job?

To look at the progress we’ve made — and we’re still such a baby nation! I used to drag my own kids to Ellis Island so they could see their own grandparents’ names on the wall. When you’re complaining about not enough space on your iPod, could you have packed up your life’s belongings in a trunk and moved to a different world? We’re here to protect that idea.

What have you learned about right and wrong from the school kids you work with?

For those of us who have had good role models, it’s very easy for us to stay on the straight and narrow, and to make the right decisions. Working with kids, I’ve learned that some don’t know what the right decision is. Someone recently told me that it’s great to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but some of these kids don’t even have the bootstraps to pull up on. You want to believe that all people have that foundation of right and wrong, but they don’t.

At your core, what do you believe?

I believe that we have to instill in people the sense that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of who they are or what they do. I believe there’s good in every human being, and sometimes it takes more time to figure out where that is, but we’re not born terrible.