Criminal Justice and Penology

Criminal justice and penology examine how societies define, respond to, and seek to prevent harmful behavior, tracing the full arc from lawmaking and policing through prosecution, punishment, and the experience of victims. The penal system sits at the center of this inquiry, raising persistent questions about whether imprisonment reduces crime, rehabilitates individuals, or primarily serves as a mechanism of social control that falls unevenly across class and racial lines. Researchers are increasingly attentive to how globalization reshapes both crime itself and the institutional responses to it, as transnational flows of people, goods, and capital complicate jurisdictional boundaries. Open debates include how restorative justice practices can be scaled without losing their relational core, and what victimology reveals about the gap between public fears of insecurity and the actual distribution of harm.

Works

116,965

Total citations

62,681

Keywords

Criminal JusticePenal SystemSocial ControlInsecurityDelinquencyPrison System