Changes in the Most-Cited Scholars in 20 Criminology and Criminal Justice Journals Between 1990 and 2015 and Comparisons with the Asian Journal of Criminology

The main aim of this article is to assess the most-cited scholars in 20 criminology and criminal justice journals in 2015 and to compare them with the most-cited scholars in these journals in 1990–2010 and with the most-cited scholars in the Asian Journal of Criminology (AJC) in 2015. Five American criminology journals, five American criminal justice journals, five international criminology journals, and five international criminal justice journals have been studied since 1990. The most-cited scholars tended to be those who carried out research on developmental and life-course criminology. Most of these highly cited scholars were also highly cited in previous years, showing the persistence of scholarly influence. Generally, the most-cited scholars in criminology and criminal justice journals overlapped considerably, as did the most-cited scholars in American and international journals. Also, the most-cited scholars in AJC in 2015 overlapped considerably with the most-cited scholars in these other categories of journals. We conclude that there is considerable agreement in American, Asian, and international criminology and criminal justice on the most-cited, and therefore most influential, scholars.

     

The Most-Cited Scholars and Works in Women and Crime Publications

ABSTRACT

Previous studies that have reported the most-cited scholars and works in criminology and criminal justice journals and textbooks have seldom acknowledged the important contributions of women and/or women and crime scholars to criminology and criminal justice. Here we extend citation analysis to the examination of 174 women and crime publications appearing from 1990 to 1996. We list the 50 most-cited scholars and the 29 most-cited works in these publications. We then compare our findings to other studies of the most-cited scholars and works in leading criminology and criminal justice journals and textbooks. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the importance of citation analysis in women and crime studies.     

Scholarly influence in criminology and criminal justice journals in 1990-2000

The main aim of this research was to investigate changes in scholarly influence by identifying the most-cited scholars in twenty journals: five American criminology journals, five American criminal justice journals, five international criminology journals, and five international criminal justice journals. The most-cited works of the most-cited scholars were also reported. Results obtained in 2000 were compared with previous findings in 1995 and 1990, and with results obtained from analyzing nine journals in 1996-2000. In 2000, the most-cited scholars were Robert J. Sampson in American criminology journals, Francis T. Cullen in American criminal justice journals, John Braithwaite in international criminology journals, and Robert D. Hare in international criminal justice journals. The expansion from nine to twenty journals benefited international scholars such as John Braithwaite and Richard V. Ericson and scholars in less mainstream areas such as Murray A. Straus. Overall, Robert J. Sampson was the most-cited scholar in these twenty journals in 2000, compared with Lawrence W. Sherman in 1995 and Marvin E. Wolfgang in 1990. The prevalence of citations (the number of different articles in which a scholar was cited) and specialization (where a scholar's influence was based on one or two highly-cited works) were also studied.     

Comprehensive examination reading lists as indicators of scholar impact and significance

The current study extended prior citation analyses in criminology and criminal justice by drawing upon an alternative, non-published source for inquiry—reading lists provided to PhD students to aid in their preparation for criminological theory doctoral examinations. Reading lists were analyzed and the most-cited scholars were identified using various measures. The strengths and weaknesses of this methodological approach as well as implications are discussed.     

Differences in assessments of relative prestige and utility of criminal justice and criminology journals

Several articles have been written about the relative prestige of journals in criminology and criminal justice. Almost uniformly, however, those rankings have focused on sociology and criminology journals and have generally reflected a sociological orientation. If criminal justice is indeed a separate discipline, such approaches are tantamount to asking psychologists to rate sociological journals within a list of psychology journals. Our approach is first to separate respondents by their degree of identification with criminal justice and their educational orientation. Second, we compile a list of responses to questions about prestige and utility to practitioners across the range of criminal justice and criminology journals. Analyses of these data indicate that there are differences in the way scholars rate journals, based on their identity with criminal justice and their educational orientation. These differences, however, are found in specific journals and in types of journals (i.e., police, corrections, criminal justice) rather than in aggregate perceptions of all criminal justice and criminology journals.     

Scholarly Influence in Criminology and Criminal Justice of China

Scholarly influence in criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) is not a new topic. However, in terms of international scholarly influence in Chinese criminology, there still exists no relevant literature, though emphasis on studying China has been increasingly recognized by the international criminological academy. The current study conducts a comprehensive analysis of 191 CCJ articles on China from 20 mainstream CCJ journals and locates those who have done work on Chinese criminology. By productivity and citation analysis, we obtain several rankings of the scholarly influence in Chinese criminology. The most prolific individual identified by the current study is Jianhong Liu; the most productive institution is the City University of Hong Kong; the most-cited scholar is Steven Messner, and the most-cited work is Policing and Punishment in China: From Patriarchy to ‘The People’ by Michael Dutton. Though the current study focuses on Chinese criminology, few local mainland Chinese scholars and publications in Chinese are among the dominant contributions.

     

The Hidden Arm of the Law: Examining Administrative Justice in Gun Carry Licensing

Responding to calls to “decenter” American penality beyond the carceral apparatus, this article ethnographically examines administrative process and dissects how it interlocks with criminal justice. To do so, it draws on an admittedly unusual, but theoretically generative, case: administrative gun boards, charged with issuing, denying, revoking, and suspending licenses to conceal carry a firearm. While scholars have examined gun ownership and gun carrying as a social practice, less attention has been paid to gun licensing as a state practice. Drawing on observations of over 900 cases from gun board meetings in two counties in Michigan, this paper examines how administrative process mimics, supplements, and facilitates criminal justice through three mechanisms: procedural pains, in which administrative process resembles criminal justice; parallel punishment, in which administrative process supplements criminal justice through withholding of benefits, entitlements or licenses; and valve‐turning, in which administrative process funnels, or threatens to funnel, claimants into the criminal justice system. Revealing how administrative process and criminal justice become mutually reinforcing, the findings extend and integrate scholarship that shows the material, symbolic, and psychic implications of criminal justice contact, on the one hand, with the increased tendency of administrative contexts to resemble criminal justice institutions, on the other.     

Criminal Justice Through “Colorblind” Lenses: A Call to Examine the Mutual Constitution of Race and Criminal Justice

A central paradox defines the scholarship of criminal justice and race: while racial disparities manifest throughout the criminal justice system, it is often portrayed as race‐neutral. We identify two central paradigm shifts: one in penology (that focuses on risk) and one in racial ideology (that focuses on colorblindness) that create a perfect storm; criminal justice apparatuses produce an illusion of racial neutrality while exacerbating racial disproportionality. We join an expanding list of scholars encouraging discourse that engages critical race theory on an empirical level and import this approach to the consideration of race within the criminal justice system. We identify issues with the conceptualization and operationalization of race as a variable within criminal justice research and recommend that scholars consider the mutual constitution of race and criminal justice. That is, scholarship must examine and empirically measure how race and criminal justice institutions actively form and inform each other.     

Nonresidential criminal justice graduate degree programs

Nonresidential criminal justice graduate degree programs were recognized as significant elements within the contemporary educational scene. The structure, nature, and extent of such programs, as reflected in the professional literature, were reviewed. A survey of the state level governing bodies in the United States was reported, as was a case study of one state's evaluation of an out-of-state graduate degree program in criminal justice, operating without license within the host state. These were used as vehicles for a consideration of the issues important to the consumer of nonresidential graduate degree programs. It was concluded that innovative educational methods and structures are desirable, but that some nonresidential programs have been inadequate academically, and the danger exists that such programs may undermine criminal justice education and defraud the criminal justice students. Criminal justice scholars were encouraged to require rigorous standards for such programs.     

INDEFINITE PUNISHMENT AND THE CRIMINAL RECORD: STIGMA REPORTS AMONG EXPUNGEMENT‐SEEKERS IN ILLINOIS*

Although criminal records in the United States are more publicly accessible than ever before, we lack knowledge about how record‐bearers seek to overcome the negative consequences associated with a visible criminal record as they apply for jobs, housing, and financial aid. Furthermore, although criminal histories record all arrests—and not just those that result in conviction—researchers have yet to compare how those with more extensive versus minor criminal records cope with criminal record stigma. We present interview data from a comparative study of expungement‐seekers (N = 53) who have petitioned the courts to remove their criminal records from public view. One group had extensive criminal records (46 percent); the other group had more minor criminal records (54 percent). Several key findings emerged. First, both groups of participants tried, but failed, to persuade potential employers and landlords to overlook the criminal record. They also faced restricted educational opportunity. Second, participants in both groups expressed distress that criminal justice contact could follow them throughout their lives, subjecting them to ongoing stigma. However, those with extensive versus minor criminal records offered different rationales explaining why the visible criminal record history unfairly burdened them. Implications for reintegration theory and policy are discussed.     

How Is Criminal Justice Related to the Rest of Justice?

Are principles of criminal justice derived from a broader conception of justice, or does criminal justice involve some of its own distinctive principles such that it is not—for example—an aspect of distributive justice? Examining considerations regarding luck and desert provides an illuminating approach to this issue. The notion of desert has largely been excised from a great deal of recent political theorizing, and in particular, it has been eliminated from many influential conceptions of distributive justice. It is widely held that the pervasiveness of luck renders desert inappropriate to contexts of distributive justice, and incompatible with the freedom and equality of persons in a just political community. Should considerations of desert also have a minimal role in criminal justice—where they seem to still be important? Are considerations of desert in the context of criminal justice consistent with persons being free and equal participants in a just political community? How are principles of criminal justice related to principles of distributive justice and political justice in an overall just society? Many scholars agree that criminal justice presupposes an adequately just society. Still, that leaves open just how criminal justice relates to justice overall. That is the present topic.     

Educational saliency and careers in criminal justice: The case of Louisiana

While there is little consensus as to the exact form and structure of an academic criminal justice program, the traditional model of higher education, with its emphasis on qualified and productive faculty, has gained popular acceptance in the past decade. Concurrently, graduates of criminal justice programs have often found that prospective employers do not value their degrees. This article explores the relationships between student evaluations of their educational experiences, the structural characteristics identified as essential to an educational program, and the mechanisms used by ex-students to reduce dissonance caused by employer rejection or a poor job market.In 1980 a total of 411 recent graduates of eight criminal justice programs in Louisiana responded to a questionnaire designed to measure their attitudes toward and evaluations of their educations. Several key structural variables frequently associated with quality higher education failed to predict student evaluations. Two exceptions were ration of senior faculty and ratio of ex-police as faculty, and the effects of these variables on student evaluations were inverse. Overall, the best predictor of the saliency of one's educational experiences was the student's evaluation of the current job market in criminal justice. This variable was followed, in descending order by sex, ratio of faculty with senior rank, years since graduation, type of degree granted, and ratio of ex-police as faculty.     

Criminal Justice Education and Training in North Carolina: History and Development from 1920 to 1980

This paper examines and analyzes primary and secondary data relative to the history and development of criminal justice education and training in North Carolina for six decades. Emphasis is focused on the early attempts to provide education and training for criminal justice personnel from 1920 to 1940, the expansion and improvement in criminal justice education and training from 1940 to 1960, and the establishment of criminal justice education and training programs in two-year community colleges and technical institutes and four-year senior public and private postsecondary education institutions from 1960 to 1980. In addition to discussing the similarities and differences in the methods utilized by institutions to establish criminal justice education and training programs, this paper discusses the curricula, course offerings, and characteristics of the faculties, as well as internal and external conditions, forces, and factors that influenced the history and development of education and training programs for criminal justice personnel. As a result of the impact of these and various influences from within police departments and individual institutions, educational and governmental state agencies, and from demands and needs of criminal justice personnel and society for better protection and safety, criminal justice education and training programs were in force at 15 two-year community colleges, 30 two-year technical institutes, 10 four-year senior, public institutions, and eight four-year, senior, private institutions in North Carolina in 1978.     

Criminal justice faculty and criminal justice students: A case for the missing data

This article reviews the most current criminal justice education research. It examines the interrelationship between the work of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Joint Commission on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards, and the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education for Police, and describes and compares some of their more important findings. Discussed are types of criminal justice programs; characteristics of criminal justice faculty, particularly in terms of earned academic degrees; agency work experience; commitment to research and teaching; types of criminal justice curricula, as typified by certain educational philosophies; and criminal justice students. Although this article notes several areas with which future research might become fruitfully involved, the area in need of most immediate attention, and the area that current research has all but ignored, is the criminal justice student.     

Punishment justifications in rape cases: a community study

Norway is one of the countries with the most progressive criminal justice systems in the Western world. Traditionally, the Norwegian criminal justice system has been mainly based on treatment and deterrence perspectives. While it is believed that criminal justice practices should be in accordance with public attitudes, few studies in Scandinavia have investigated public attitudes towards criminal justice sanctions in a methodologically sound manner. The current study is the first to investigate the attitudes of the Norwegian public towards punishment of rapists. In a Norwegian community sample (N = 475) from 2005, participants found the typical sentencing severity of a convicted rapist too lenient. The participants did report that as a global sentencing orientation, they preferred incapacitation. When presented with a specific rape case, their sentencing judgements were oriented towards both incapacitation and retribution, but their global orientation were not related to their specific judgements. Aggravating circumstances (e.g. violence was used) were found to influence the participants’ judgements more than when no aggravating circumstances were present (e.g. no violence was used). Few gender or educational differences were found, which indicates that these attitudes towards punishment of rapists are quite consistent across demographical groups.     

Thirty Years of Scholarly Influence in International Journals and Its Relation to the Most-Cited Scholars in Asian Criminology

Citation analysis provides a quantitative means of tracking the most influential scholars and works within a field. Despite this advantage, there is a dearth of research that provides more than a snapshot of influence over a relatively short time period. One exception is the citation analysis body of research conducted by Cohn and Farrington (1990, 2012), which has recently been expanded to include European (Cohn and Iratzoqui 2016) and Asian (Farrington et al. 2019) criminologies. The current paper presents a thirty-year analysis (1986–2015) of scholarly influence within four international journals (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Criminology), as well as an analysis of the Asian Journal of Criminology (AJC) over its first 10-year period (2006–2015). The main conclusions are that, while rankings over time are not generally consistent within journals, the most-cited scholars tend to remain highly ranked over time across the four main international journals. Furthermore, the most highly cited scholars in the four international journals were also highly cited in AJC. The most-cited works of the top scholars across all of the international journals, including AJC, covered four major areas, including developmental and life-course criminology, theoretical issues, statistics, and policy issues.

     

Trust and Legal Governance: A Case Study of Ethiopian Criminal Justice

Current empirical research on trust in criminal justice focuses on those who do the trusting. Working from the theoretical position that trust is relational, this article expands that research by showing how trust relationships between the public and criminal justice institutions are shaped by the legal framework governing them. Reporting empirical case studies from the plural legal governance of criminal justice in Ethiopia, the article shows that the country's different legal frameworks produce different constructions of trust relationships between the public and criminal justice institutions. Furthermore, the empirical study shows that the practical organization of daily case handling in criminal justice institutions make for an important mechanism to mediate and link these differently constructed trust relationships.     

Competency-based education: An alternative for criminal justice education?

Over the last several years, criminal justice education In the United States has increased dramatically. Much of this growth has been in response to the needs of an evolving criminal justice field. However, there is some concern among professionals that the criminal justice system needs to be impacted more directly, and that institutions of higher learning need to be impetus for this change. To complete this task, curricula in higher education programs need to become more relevant to the needs of the system, while not ignoring the student of the educational system. This article examines the use of competency-based education (CBE) as a model that will serve the criminal justice student of today and the criminal justice system of tomorrow.     

Do introductory criminology textbooks cite the most influential criminologists? Estimating the “match” between what journals report and what textbooks discuss

Using recent citation analyses of criminology journals and textbooks to estimate the “match” between what journals report and what textbooks discuss. Twentythree criminology textbooks published from 1989 to 1993 were ranked by how prominently they cite the 25 most-cited scholars in recent leading criminology journals. I suggest some reasons why criminology textbook authors extensively cite and discuss some influential scholars but not others, and conclude by noting several limitations to using citation analysis to estimate the match between journals and textbooks.     

Student Success and Failure in a Graduate Criminology/Criminal Justice Program

Despite the burdens that students and institutions assume when underwriting educational careers, very little is known about completion rates, risk factors, and successful strategies of criminology/criminal justice (CCJ) graduate programs. Consequently, the present study tracks 287 master’s and 70 doctoral students who entered the Florida State University CCJ program during the 1991–2000 academic years. Almost two-thirds of this cohort earned an advanced degree. Younger students with higher GRE scores were more likely to complete the master’s program. Successful doctoral degree recipients tended to have lower GRE scores, be non-White, and earn their master’s degrees in-house. In terms of time-to-degree, it took over two years to earn an M.A. and slightly more than six years to negotiate the Ph.D. Implications are explored for the program, the university, and the discipline.