Public Criminology
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 June 2011
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 June 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0137
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 June 2011
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 June 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0137
Introduction
Public criminology means different things to different people, and some scholars use the plural term public criminologies to indicate that there are multiple publics and many possible interpretations of how to bridge the gap between academic criminology and public discourse. The current discussion of public criminology shares many ideas and points with the debate over public sociology, which Michael Burawoy has championed in a number of forums. To distinguish public sociology from other forms of sociological work, Burawoy divides sociology into four broad categories: professional sociology, critical sociology, policy sociology, and public sociology. While he uses a two-by-two table to conceptualize the different cells academics might work in and move through, Christopher Uggen and Michelle Inderbitzin prefer to represent the corresponding areas of criminology as a Venn diagram, where categories may overlap and individuals may be involved in professional, critical, policy, and public criminology to varying degrees. While the practice of public criminology will not appeal to all scholars in the field, those with the interests and skills to carry criminological theories and research into the public debate offer an important service. Among other tasks, they may debunk myths and help to reframe the cultural image of the criminal, they may offer social facts on crime and punishment and bring context to highly sensationalized cases, they may work with communities to compile data and answer pressing questions, and they may bring the best available evidence to conversations and debate on issues of criminal justice public policy.
General Overviews
Although the field of public criminology as an area of study is a fairly recent one, there are several articles exploring, defining, and addressing the varying roles criminologists may choose to play in public work, including Uggen and Inderbitzin 2010 and Loader and Sparks 2008. The first book devoted solely to public criminology is Loader and Sparks 2010, while the journal Theoretical Criminology devoted a full issue to the topic of public criminologies in 2007 (see Chancer and McLaughlin 2007). Also included in this section are two well-written histories of the field of criminology: Laub 2004 and Sherman 2005. Both are helpful in understanding the current context and fresh interest in public criminology.
Chancer, Lynn, and Eugene McLaughlin. 2007. Public criminologies: Diverse perspectives on academia and policy. Theoretical Criminology 11.2: 155–173.
This essay introduces a special issue on public criminologies in Theoretical Criminology and provides an overview of academic criminologists’ views on the discipline’s relationship to public status and public policy. The authors offer some history of the public criminology movement and an overview of the articles in the special issue. List of all articles in the issue available online.
Laub, John H. 2004. The life course of criminology in the United States: The American Society of Criminology 2003 presidential address. Criminology 42.1: 1–26.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2004.tb00511.x
Not specifically about public criminology, but offers useful background information and a very good overview of the history and development of the field of criminology.
Loader, Ian, and Richard Sparks. 2008. What are we gonna do now? Revisiting the public roles of criminology. Criminal Justice Matters 72.1: 18–19.
DOI: 10.1080/09627250802057898
This article discusses the paradox of “successful failure” in criminology, where the academic field of criminology is booming, even as criminological knowledge and recommendations are largely marginalized in the public sphere.
Loader, Ian, and Richard Sparks. 2010. Public criminology? London: Routledge.
The first book devoted to the topic of public criminology; offers a broad overview and suggests that criminologists’ public purpose is primarily to engage in improved politics of crime and responses to crime.
Sherman, Lawrence W. 2005. The use and usefulness of criminology, 1751–2005: Enlightened justice and its failures. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 600.1: 115–135.
Thoughtful recounting of the birth and development of criminology; Sherman provides an interesting history of the field, its founders, influential studies, and key figures. He argues for more use of experimental methods in hopes of building better evidence and more public interest in the practical value of research.
Uggen, Christopher, and Michelle Inderbitzin. 2010. Public criminologies. Criminology & Public Policy 9.4: 725–750.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9133.2010.00666.x
An essay discussing public criminologies’ relationship to public sociology as well as the field’s own historical development and present status. The authors argue that public criminology is important both for the publics it seeks to educate and learn from, and for the scholars who wish to work in the public arena.
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Article
- Active Offender Research
- Actus Reus
- Adler, Freda
- Adversarial System of Justice
- Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Aging Prison Population, The
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- Alcohol and Drug Prohibition
- Alcohol Use, Policy and Crime
- Alt-Right Gangs and White Power Youth Groups
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- Anomie
- Arson
- Art Crime
- Back-End Sentencing and Parole Revocation
- Bail and Pretrial Detention
- Batterer Intervention Programs
- Bentham, Jeremy
- Big Data and Communities and Crime
- Biosocial Criminology
- Blackmail
- Black's Theory of Law and Social Control
- Blumstein, Alfred
- Boot Camps and Shock Incarceration Programs
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- Bystander Intervention
- Capital Punishment
- Chambliss, William
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- Community-Based Substance Use Prevention
- Comparative Criminal Justice Systems
- CompStat Models of Police Performance Management
- Confessions, False and Coerced
- Conservation Criminology
- Consumer Fraud
- Contextual Analysis of Crime
- Control Balance Theory
- Convict Criminology
- Co-Offending and the Role of Accomplices
- Corporate Crime
- Costs of Crime and Justice
- Courts, Drug
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- Courts, Mental Health
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- Crime, Campus
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- Crime Prevention, Delinquency and
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- Crime Prevention, Voluntary Organizations and
- Crime Trends
- Crime Victims' Rights Movement
- Criminal Career Research
- Criminal Decision Making, Emotions in
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- Criminal Justice Ethics
- Criminal Justice Fines and Fees
- Criminal Justice Reform, Politics of
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- Criminal Records
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- Criminal Talk
- Criminology and Political Science
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- Critical Criminology
- Cross-National Crime
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- Cultural Criminology
- Cultural Theories
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- Cycle of Violence
- Day Fines
- Deadly Force
- Defense Counsel
- Defining "Success" in Corrections and Reentry
- Desistance
- Deterrence
- Developmental and Life-Course Criminology
- Digital Piracy
- Driving and Traffic Offenses
- Drug Control
- Drug Trafficking, International
- Drugs and Crime
- Elder Abuse
- Electronically Monitored Home Confinement
- Employee Theft
- Environmental Crime and Justice
- Experimental Criminology
- Extortion
- Family Violence
- Fear of Crime and Perceived Risk
- Felon Disenfranchisement
- Femicide
- Feminist Theories
- Feminist Victimization Theories
- Fencing and Stolen Goods Markets
- Firearms and Violence
- Forensic Science
- For-Profit Private Prisons and the Criminal Justice–Indust...
- Fraud
- Gambling
- Gangs, Peers, and Co-offending
- Gender and Crime
- Gendered Crime Pathways
- General Opportunity Victimization Theories
- Genetics, Environment, and Crime
- Green Criminology
- Halfway Houses
- Harm Reduction and Risky Behaviors
- Hate Crime
- Hate Crime Legislation
- Healthcare Fraud
- Hirschi, Travis
- History of Crime in the United Kingdom
- History of Criminology
- Homelessness and Crime
- Homicide
- Homicide Victimization
- Honor Cultures and Violence
- Hot Spots Policing
- Human Rights
- Human Trafficking
- Identity Theft
- Immigration, Crime, and Justice
- Incarceration, Mass
- Incarceration, Public Health Effects of
- Income Tax Evasion
- Indigenous Criminology
- Institutional Anomie Theory
- Integrated Theory
- Intermediate Sanctions
- Interpersonal Violence, Historical Patterns of
- Interrogation
- Intimate Partner Violence, Criminological Perspectives on
- Intimate Partner Violence, Police Responses to
- Investigation, Criminal
- Juvenile Delinquency
- Juvenile Justice System, The
- Juvenile Waivers
- Kidnapping
- Kornhauser, Ruth Rosner
- Labeling Theory
- Labor Markets and Crime
- Land Use and Crime
- Lead and Crime
- Legitimacy
- LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence
- LGBTQ People in Prison
- Life Without Parole Sentencing
- Local Institutions and Neighborhood Crime
- Lombroso, Cesare
- Longitudinal Research in Criminology
- Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
- Mapping and Spatial Analysis of Crime, The
- Mass Media, Crime, and Justice
- Measuring Crime
- Mediation and Dispute Resolution Programs
- Mental Health and Crime
- Merton, Robert K.
- Meta-analysis in Criminology
- Middle-Class Crime and Criminality
- Migrant Detention and Incarceration
- Mixed Methods Research in Criminology
- Money Laundering
- Motor Vehicle Theft
- Multi-Level Marketing Scams
- Murder, Serial
- Narrative Criminology
- National Deviancy Symposia, The
- Nature Versus Nurture
- Neighborhood Disorder
- Neutralization Theory
- New Penology, The
- Offender Decision-Making and Motivation
- Offense Specialization/Expertise
- Organized Crime
- Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs
- Panel Methods in Criminology
- Peacemaking Criminology
- Peer Networks and Delinquency
- Perceptions of Youth, Juvenile Justice Professionals'
- Performance Measurement and Accountability Systems
- Personality and Trait Theories of Crime
- Persons with a Mental Illness, Police Encounters with
- Phenomenological Theories of Crime
- Plea Bargaining
- Poaching
- Police Administration
- Police Cooperation, International
- Police Discretion
- Police Effectiveness
- Police History
- Police Militarization
- Police Misconduct
- Police, Race and the
- Police Use of Force
- Police, Violence against the
- Policing and Law Enforcement
- Policing, Body-Worn Cameras and
- Policing, Broken Windows
- Policing, Community and Problem-Oriented
- Policing Cybercrime
- Policing, Evidence-Based
- Policing, Intelligence-Led
- Policing, Privatization of
- Policing, Proactive
- Policing, School
- Policing, Stop-and-Frisk
- Policing, Third Party
- Polyvictimization
- Positivist Criminology
- Pretrial Detention, Alternatives to
- Pretrial Diversion
- Prison Administration
- Prison Classification
- Prison, Disciplinary Segregation in
- Prison Education Exchange Programs
- Prison Gangs and Subculture
- Prison History
- Prison Labor
- Prison Visitation
- Prisoner Reentry
- Prisons and Jails
- Prisons, HIV in
- Private Security
- Probation Revocation
- Procedural Justice
- Property Crime
- Prosecution and Courts
- Prostitution
- Psychiatry, Psychology, and Crime: Historical and Current ...
- Psychology and Crime
- Public Criminology
- Public Opinion, Crime and Justice
- Public Order Crimes
- Public Social Control and Neighborhood Crime
- Punishment Justification and Goals
- Qualitative Methods in Criminology
- Queer Criminology
- Race and Sentencing Research Advancements
- Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Justice
- Racial Threat Hypothesis
- Racial Profiling
- Rape and Sexual Assault
- Rape, Fear of
- Rational Choice Theories
- Rehabilitation
- Religion and Crime
- Restorative Justice
- Risk Assessment
- Routine Activity Theories
- School Bullying
- School Crime and Violence
- School Safety, Security, and Discipline
- Search Warrants
- Seasonality and Crime
- Self-Control, The General Theory:
- Self-Report Crime Surveys
- Sentencing Enhancements
- Sentencing, Evidence-Based
- Sentencing Guidelines
- Sentencing Policy
- Sex Crimes
- Sex Offender Policies and Legislation
- Sex Trafficking
- Sexual Revictimization
- Situational Action Theory
- Snitching and Use of Criminal Informants
- Social and Intellectual Context of Criminology, The
- Social Construction of Crime, The
- Social Control of Tobacco Use
- Social Control Theory
- Social Disorganization
- Social Ecology of Crime
- Social Learning Theory
- Social Networks
- Social Threat and Social Control
- Solitary Confinement
- South Africa, Crime and Justice in
- Sport Mega-Events Security
- Stalking and Harassment
- State Crime
- State Dependence and Population Heterogeneity in Theories ...
- Strain Theories
- Street Code
- Street Robbery
- Substance Use and Abuse
- Surveillance, Public and Private
- Sutherland, Edwin H.
- Technology and the Criminal Justice System
- Technology, Criminal Use of
- Terrorism
- Terrorism and Hate Crime
- Terrorism, Criminological Explanations for
- Testimony, Eyewitness
- Therapeutic Jurisprudence
- Trajectory Methods in Criminology
- Transnational Crime
- Truth-In-Sentencing
- Urban Politics and Crime
- US War on Terrorism, Legal Perspectives on the
- Victim Impact Statements
- Victimization, Adolescent
- Victimization, Biosocial Theories of
- Victimization Patterns and Trends
- Victimization, Repeat
- Victimization, Vicarious and Related Forms of Secondary Tr...
- Victimless Crime
- Victim-Offender Overlap, The
- Violence Against Women
- Violence, Youth
- Violent Crime
- White-Collar Crime
- White-Collar Crime, The Global Financial Crisis and
- White-Collar Crime, Women and
- Wilson, James Q.
- Wolfgang, Marvin
- Women, Girls, and Reentry
- Wrongful Conviction