An analysis of citations in introductory criminology textbooks: A research note

Introductory textbooks have an important role in familiarizing people with the subject matter, scope, accumulated knowledge, and general problems of a professional discipline. Therefore, they perform a socializing function for a substantive area of study. A study was conducted to find out which social scientists are most cited in 20 recently published criminology textbooks. The study resulted in a list of 19 names of influential criminologists and some additional findings concerning the “criminological enterprise.”