Aim and Scope
According to my colleagues at the University of Montreal, criminology “is the multidisciplinary study of the criminal phenomenon”. It makes use of the humanities and social sciences (psychology, sociology, law, etc.) to understand the crime, the criminal, the victim, criminality, and society’s reaction to crime.
Although everyone is aware of the criminal phenomenon, particularly through media exposure, the public understanding is often anecdotal and fragmentary. The criminologist looks beyond the headlines and takes a rigorously analytical and critical approach to criminality. He begins by analyzing the crime, before examining the type of intervention employed.
Criminology is also an applied discipline. The criminologist is trained, for example, to decide whether a prisoner should be granted conditional release, or to propose a strategy for tackling an explosion of vehicle theft in a parking lot. He thus develops risk prevention and risk management strategies that take into account the dynamics of crime and the ethical and political stakes surrounding it.
There are many journals covering criminal law, the criminal sciences and sociology, but very few international criminology reviews. We therefore aim to provide a space for open-minded dialogue, comparison, and criticism, which takes into account diverse approaches while avoiding sterile arguments about the nature of the discipline itself.
A crime is the unique combination of a perpetrator, a victim, and a set of circumstances. Its individual and quantitative analysis requires scientific methods and specific intellectual and technical abilities.
In The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim emphasizes that “[…] A number of acts can be observed, all with the external characteristic that once accomplished, they provoke this particular reaction from society known as punishment. We make of them a group sui generis, on which we impose a common rubric. We call any punished act a crime and make crime thus defined the focus of a dedicated science: criminology”.
Online ISSN: 2333-9861
International Journal on Criminology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. It is supported through Policy Studies Organization. The Policy Studies Organization is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations since 2023.
Although everyone is aware of the criminal phenomenon, particularly through media exposure, the public understanding is often anecdotal and fragmentary. The criminologist looks beyond the headlines and takes a rigorously analytical and critical approach to criminality. He begins by analyzing the crime, before examining the type of intervention employed.
Criminology is also an applied discipline. The criminologist is trained, for example, to decide whether a prisoner should be granted conditional release, or to propose a strategy for tackling an explosion of vehicle theft in a parking lot. He thus develops risk prevention and risk management strategies that take into account the dynamics of crime and the ethical and political stakes surrounding it.
There are many journals covering criminal law, the criminal sciences and sociology, but very few international criminology reviews. We therefore aim to provide a space for open-minded dialogue, comparison, and criticism, which takes into account diverse approaches while avoiding sterile arguments about the nature of the discipline itself.
A crime is the unique combination of a perpetrator, a victim, and a set of circumstances. Its individual and quantitative analysis requires scientific methods and specific intellectual and technical abilities.
In The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Emile Durkheim emphasizes that “[…] A number of acts can be observed, all with the external characteristic that once accomplished, they provoke this particular reaction from society known as punishment. We make of them a group sui generis, on which we impose a common rubric. We call any punished act a crime and make crime thus defined the focus of a dedicated science: criminology”.
Online ISSN: 2333-9861
International Journal on Criminology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. It is supported through Policy Studies Organization. The Policy Studies Organization is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations since 2023.
Editorial Board
Jean Pierre Arnaud PR
CNAM
Alain Bauer PR
CNAM, Shanghai, New York, Beijing
Philippe Baumard PR
CNAM
Michel Bera PR
CNAM
Gerald Bronner PR
Paris 7, IUF
Laurent Cappelletti PR
CNAM
Robert Cario PR
Pau, France
Jean Paul Cere MCF
Pau, France
Pascal Chaigneau PR
Paris 5, HEC
Clotilde Champeyrache MCF
Paris 8, France
Marc Cools PR
Gent, Belgium
Maurice Cusson PR
Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Philippe Durance PR
CNAM
Frederic Esposito PR
Geneva, Switzerland
Nboaz Ganor PR
Lauder ITC, Israel
Mathieu Guidere PR
Paris 8, France
Francois Haut MCF
Paris 2, France
Mathieu Lacambre MCF
Montpellier, France
Xavier Latour PR
Nice, France
Jianming Mei PR
Beijing, Shanghai, China
Louise Shelley PR
George Mason University, USA
Arndt Sinn PR
Osnabruck, Germany
Max Taylor PR
London, UK
Mariame Toure
Centif, Senegal
Christian Vallar PR
Nice, France
CNAM
Alain Bauer PR
CNAM, Shanghai, New York, Beijing
Philippe Baumard PR
CNAM
Michel Bera PR
CNAM
Gerald Bronner PR
Paris 7, IUF
Laurent Cappelletti PR
CNAM
Robert Cario PR
Pau, France
Jean Paul Cere MCF
Pau, France
Pascal Chaigneau PR
Paris 5, HEC
Clotilde Champeyrache MCF
Paris 8, France
Marc Cools PR
Gent, Belgium
Maurice Cusson PR
Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Philippe Durance PR
CNAM
Frederic Esposito PR
Geneva, Switzerland
Nboaz Ganor PR
Lauder ITC, Israel
Mathieu Guidere PR
Paris 8, France
Francois Haut MCF
Paris 2, France
Mathieu Lacambre MCF
Montpellier, France
Xavier Latour PR
Nice, France
Jianming Mei PR
Beijing, Shanghai, China
Louise Shelley PR
George Mason University, USA
Arndt Sinn PR
Osnabruck, Germany
Max Taylor PR
London, UK
Mariame Toure
Centif, Senegal
Christian Vallar PR
Nice, France