About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Crim. Just. 5 (2001)

handle is hein.journals/crmcj1 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL Criminal justice © 2001 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi. 1466-8025(200102) 1:1; Vol. 1(1): 5-9; 015645 Within the last decade, the study of criminal justice/criminology/police studies, etc. has grown significantly across the world. Undergraduate and postgraduate numbers are growing, more research is being carried out, and the discipline is becoming academically institutionalized. One result of this can be seen in the numbers attending conferences: several thousand dele- gates attend the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology, and-since its inception in 1987-there has been increasing interest in the British Criminology Conference. Similar developments can be seen in Europe (with a European Society of Criminology being organized), in Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa and in the Far East. For good academic-as well as other, less official-reasons, academics and practi- tioners travel widely to exchange ideas and learn from each other. Many of the national societies of criminology are making links with each other. The globalization of criminology and criminal justice is rapidly becoming a reality. These developments are intimately linked to the increasing politicization of crime and justice issues across the world. In both the USA and the UK, for example, there was a degree of political consensus about crime and its causes until at least the 1960s. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice in 1967 put it simply thus: 'crime flourishes where the conditions of life are the worst', and conse- quently the response should be 'an unremitting national effort for social justice' (Currie, 1993: 10). Conservative critics on both sides of the Atlantic began their attack on such a position in the late 1960s/early 1970s, since when, 'law and order' has become more and more a dominant feature of political discourse. Crime and the fear of crime, punishment and offenders, drug and alcohol misuse are all now critical topics of concern for the general public. As we write, a significant debate is taking place in the UK about the treatment of sex offenders following the decision by a Sunday newspaper to 'name and shame' convicted paedophiles, leading to vigilante attacks on various members of the public. Similarly, in the Presidential race in the USA, the issues of gun control and the use of the death penalty were once again towards the top of the agenda. Of course, it is not simply the politicization of 'law and order' that is the issue, but the nature of that politicization. The last 30 years have seen the emergence and reinforcement of a particular set of discourses framing 5 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most