Criminology & Criminal Justice
Criminology & Criminal Justice is a leading, peer reviewed journal of original research and thinking in the field. The journal seeks to reflect the vibrancy of the disciplines of criminology and criminal justice throughout the UK and internationally. It publishes work of the highest quality and academic rigour from around the world and across all areas of criminology and criminal justice. It is interdisciplinary in nature, and is devoted to providing an international forum for critical debate and policy discussions of criminological and criminal justice research findings. As the official journal of the British Society of Criminology, Criminology & Criminal Justice encourages the submission of articles that are of interest to an international and/or British readership. Some of the key types of articles which form the focus of the journal will include:
- original conceptual articles on crime, its prevention and control
- empirical studies, including those of criminological research findings, criminal justice policy-making and the implementation of laws, processes and criminal justice
- analyses of international crimes and criminal justice institutions and policy transfer, as well as evaluations of significant developments in criminal justice practices
- debates about the public role of criminology and criminologists.
"This journal addresses key issues facing the future of criminal justice, and will be a major venue for presenting the best evidence on those issues as it emerges from new research." Lawrence W. Sherman, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
"Internationally, criminal justice is one of the fastest growing areas of social science. This journal, with its first-rate editorial board and impressive record of scholarship, has rapidly become a must-read for any scholar interested in international or comparative criminology and criminal justice." Todd Clear, Distinguished Professor of Law and Police Science, John Jay College, City University of New York, USA
"In its broad coverage of a broad field, and in its publication of articles by criminologists of distinction from across the world, Criminology and Criminal Justice, formerly Criminal Justice, has established itself nationally and internationally as one of the leading journals in the discipline." Professor Paul Rock, London School of Economics, UK
Access all issues of Criminology & Criminal Justice on SAGE Journals Online.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Criminology & Criminal Justice is a leading, peer reviewed journal of original research and thinking in the field. The journal seeks to reflect the vibrancy of the disciplines of criminology and criminal justice throughout the UK and internationally. It publishes work of the highest quality and academic rigour from around the world and across all areas of criminology and criminal justice. It is interdisciplinary in nature, and is devoted to providing an international forum for critical debate and policy discussions of criminological and criminal justice research findings. As the official journal of the British Society of Criminology, Criminology & Criminal Justice encourages the submission of articles that are of interest to an international and/or British readership. Some of the key types of articles which form the focus of the journal will include:
* original conceptual articles on crime, its prevention and control;
* empirical studies, including those of criminological research findings, criminal justice policy-making and the implementation of laws, processes and criminal justice;
* analyses of international crimes and criminal justice institutions and policy transfer, as well as evaluations of significant developments in criminal justice practices;
* debates about the public role of criminology and criminologists.
| Loraine Gelsthorpe | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Anita Lavorgna | University of Bologna (Italy) and University of Southampton (UK) |
| Pamela Ugwudike | University of Southampton, UK |
| George Mair | Liverpool Hope University, UK |
| Tim Newburn | London School of Economics, UK |
| Michelle Newberry | University of Southampton, UK |
| Alexandra Wigzell | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Ashton Kingdon | University of Southampton, UK |
| Harry Annison | University of Southampton, UK |
| Colin Atkinson | University of West of Scotland, UK |
| Monish Bhatia | Birkbeck, University of London, UK |
| Avi Boukli | University of Southampton, UK |
| Yi Ting Chua | University of Tulsa, USA |
| Joana Gomes Ferreira | University of Bath, UK |
| Christopher Hamerton | University of Southampton, UK |
| David Hayes | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Katharine Hoeger | University of Oxford, UK |
| Anthea Hucklesby | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Melanie Jordan | University of Nottingham, UK |
| Hannah Marshall | University of Cambridge, UK |
| Shona Minson | University of Oxford, UK |
| Georgios Papanicolau | Northumbria University, UK |
| Jake Phillips | Sheffield Hallam University, UK |
| Anna Sergi | Essex University, UK |
| Alisa Stevens | Cardiff University, UK |
| Lisa Sugiura | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Azrini Wahidin | University of Warwick, UK |
| Craig Webber | University of Southampton, UK |
| Biko Agozino | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA |
| Rosemary Barberet | John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA |
| Kristel Beyens | Free University of Brussels, Belgium |
| Kerry Carrington | Queensland University of Technology, Australia |
| Mary Corcoran | Keele University, UK |
| Adam Crawford | University of Leeds, UK |
| Chris Cunneen | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Rod Earle | Open University, UK |
| Kate Fitz-Gibbon | Monash University, Canada |
| David Gadd | Manchester University, UK |
| Philip Goodman | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Martine Herzog-Evans | University of Reims, France |
| Andrew Jefferson | Dignity – Danish Institute Against Torture, Denmark |
| Karen A. Joe Laidler | University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Edward Kleemans | Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| Anita Lam | York University, Canada |
| Maggie Lee | University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Tim Legrand | Australian National University, Australia |
| Fernando Miro Llinares | Miguel Hernández University in Elche, Spain |
| Mona Lynch | University of California, Irvine, USA |
| Simon Mackenzie | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Monique Marks | Durban University of Technology, South Africa |
| Kate O'Brien | Durham University, UK |
| Stefaan Pleysier | Leuven University, Belgium |
| Peter Raynor | Swansea University, UK |
| Rossella Selmini | University of Bologna, Italy |
| Gavin Slade | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Peter Squires | Brighton University, UK |
| Elizabeth Stanley | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Kerstin Svensson | Lund University, Sweden |
| Maurice Vanstone | Swansea University, UK |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ccj to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Criminology & Criminal Justice will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Publication types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - Our peer review process
- On acceptance and publication
7.1 Sage Production
7.2 Online First publication
7.3 Access to your published article
7.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Criminology & Criminal Justice, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Orignal Articles:
Criminology & Criminal Justice publishes work of the highest quality and academic rigour from around the world and across all areas of criminology and criminal justice. It is interdisciplinary in nature, and is devoted to providing an international forum for critical debate and policy discussions of criminological and criminal justice research findings. As the official journal of the British Society of Criminology, Criminology & Criminal Justice encourages the submission of articles that are of interest to an international and/or British readership.
Some of the key types of articles which form the focus of the journal will include:
- original conceptual articles on crime, its prevention and control;
- empirical studies, including those of criminological research findings, criminal justice policy-making and the implementation of laws, processes and criminal justice;
- analyses of crimes and criminal justice institutions and policy transfer, as well as evaluations of significant developments in criminal justice practices;
- debates about the public role of criminology and criminologists.
Submissions to Criminology & Criminal Justice should be written in English and should not have been published already, nor be currently under consideration elsewhere. If you have authored any other papers published, in press, or submitted to other journals that are closely related to the submitted paper, such as those using the same data set, deriving from the same research or addressing a similar topic you will be asked to acknowledge this at time of submission. You will be asked to state how the submitted manuscript differs from the other papers and what its specific contributions are. You may also be required to provide the editors with electronic copies of any such papers.
Book Reviews:
Criminology & Criminal Justice also publishes book reviews on recent publications of interest for the aim and scope of the Journal. If interested in writing a book review, or in suggesting a book to be reviewed, please contact the Book Review Editors.
Book reviews should be between 800 and 1,000 words including references.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online. If you are active on Twitter please include your Twitter handle and a suggested tweet to promote your article if it is accepted for publication when requested to do so in the submissions system.
All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those papers that meet the academic and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review. Criminology & Criminal Justice operates a strictly anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and the author’s name from the reviewer. Submissions are reviewed by at least two reviewers.
Book reviews will be managed and reviewed by the Book Reviews Editors.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Criminology & Criminal Justice requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Criminology & Criminal Justice asks authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Criminology & Criminal Justice and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Criminology & Criminal Justice offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
Submissions to Criminology & Criminal Justice may not normally exceed 8,000 words. The word count includes all text, including but not limited to, the abstract, main body, notes, acknowledgements, tables, figures, and references. Over-lengthpapers may be returned without being put through the peer review process.
The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left- and right-hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. All pages should be numbered. Titles and section headings should be clear with a maximum of three orders of heading.
Please prepare your submission in two separate files:
• complete manuscript (including title, an abstract of no more than 150 words, 4-6 keywords, a final word count, as well as the author's full name, affiliation, institutional and email address, telephone and fax numbers, and a short biography for each author of 25-50 words).
• anonymized manuscript (title, the main body of text, footnotes, tables, and figures). This document must be anonymized and suitable for viewing by reviewers. Manuscripts that include direct references to the author (including references to publications) will be returned.
Both British and American spellings are accepted, as long as one spelling is used consistently throughout the text. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to ensure the grammatical correctness of their paper prior to submission.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
Criminology & Criminal Justice does not currently accept supplemental files.
For initial submissions, Criminology & Criminal Justice welcomes papers in any version of Harvard or APA format. Authors will be asked to revise the formatting according to the preferred style of the Journal (Sage Harvard reference style) if the article is not rejected by the Editors or during the first round of reviewsIf you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Criminology & Criminal Justice is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ccj to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
The author should submit the manuscript through the online submission system, complying with the instructions for authors. The author receives an automatic acknowledgment by email confirming the article submission. The Editors will make a first assessment of the article submitted and check whether it fits the aims and scope of the journal and is of sufficient academic quality. Manuscripts that do not comply with the instructions for authors will be returned to the authors.
Manuscripts will undergo a very stringent double-anonymize peer-review process. All manuscripts (except for Editorials and Book Reviews) will be sent out for review and at least two review reports per manuscript will be collected. All reviewers will be carefully selected and must fulfil the following criteria:
- Be a recognized expert in the field, with recent publications in the field of the submitted paper;
- They hold no conflicts of interest with the authors, including if they have published together in the last three years or they are in the same institution;
- That they hold a PhD.
Reviewers will be asked to complete their review within three weeks. Extensions can be granted on request. Decisions regarding each submission will be taken without exception by the Editors-in-Chief/Guest Editor. In order to guarantee swiftness of the editorial process, each manuscript will only be allowed two rounds of review and revisions. Authors are thus urged to address all issues raised by the reviewers directly after the first round of peer-review.
7. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
7.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
8. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Criminology & Criminal Justice editorial office as follows: