Criminology

While there is no clear-cut definition of criminology, for the sake of this editorial it may help to look at the topics presented in Budapest this year under the label 'criminology'. The conference programme covers a wide range of issues, from the individual characteristics of those who have committed crimes or have become victims, through gender violence and disciplinary problems in schools, diverse violations of human rights and international crimes (such as genocide), and international criminal networks, to sentencing procedures, prevention of drug use, the impact of urban development on crime, capitalist globalisation and punitive populism and, indeed, the potential of restorative justice. Almost all scientific, social and normative disciplines are involved, and it is often difficult to indicate precisely the disciplines or specialisations that are implicated. Criminology is gradually developing its own theoretical and methodological approaches. The Budapest conference programme witnesses the wide scope of criminology as a field of scientific research and scientifically guided practice. What is common in the contributions is that they all deal with matters that are directly or indirectly related to the concept of crime and/or criminal justice. Against this background, we think that the emergence of restorative justice in recent decades is beneficial for criminology as a whole. We see at least four reasons for this, which we would like to discuss briefly in this editorial: credibility of the criminal justice system, normalisation of criminal behaviour, normative choices to be made, and the setup of a laboratory for research. Credibility Historically speaking, criminology is rooted in critical reflection on institutional responses to crime. The Enlightenment aimed to liberate citizens from the authoritar

Sexual violence is a pernicious social phenomenon. The limited effectiveness of traditional justice responses has resulted in a search for alternative and innovative responses. This article highlights research and presents findings regarding one such innovative response to sexual violence: restorative justice. While the study adopted a multi-strategy research design to explore the potential of restorative justice in cases of sexual violence this article focuses in particular on one aspect of that design: a webbased survey used to map the global population of programmes engaging in these practices. The article highlights the many challenges inherent in researching emerging social responses and suggests that web-based surveys offer a means of mapping emerging or ?under the radar? practices and harvesting important qualitative as well as quantitative data on sensitive topics. They may be especially valuable when populations are geographically dispersed. However, tailoring survey instru...

The Good Lives Model and restorative justice, although both innovative practices with a number of common traits, interests and aims, have been developing in parallel or even at odds with each other for a number of years. As a consequence, they have rarely been examined as possibly complementary and of use to each other. In this article we aim to explore these innovative practices individually and to look at how they might work together to address the harm in a positive and constructive way for all stakeholders. We examine the possibilities of how a new approach to criminology, a criminology of trust, could be further developed through their lens and their possible complementarity.

In times when the public, political and academic discourses flourish with contributions that deliberate on whether it is 'all quiet on NATO's Eastern flank', Jakub J. Grygiel and A. Wess Mitchell are among a handful that dare advance a straightforward argument on the 'unquiet frontier' with their 2016 book 'The Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies, and the Crisis of American Power'. The authors – one a renowned academic, the other a think-tanker – have successfully managed to address the topic from both academic and policy-oriented perspectives. The book dismantles the current US strategy in relation to its allies – but also vis-à-vis growing revisionist powers – and advocates for both continued US presence abroad as well as the strengthening of ties with US allies worldwide.