Abstract
Welcome to the first issue under our editorial tenure. It is a great honour and privilege to hold the position as the new Editors of the flagship journal of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology. We come into the role supported by our Managing Editor, Rebecca Powell, in addition to four Associate Editors and an Editorial Board with membership from across the globe, offering diverse expertise.
It is customary that new editors provide a pronouncement of their vision in the editorial of their first issue. To prepare for this, we reviewed the introductory editorials published in the journal since 1968, to get a better understanding of the priorities of our predecessors. This historical sojourn made us deeply appreciative of the contributions of past editors, who established and internationalised the journal. Whatever successes we have as editors in the next three years will be a function of the journal's strong foundation.
Reflecting on the evolution of the journal since its very first issue, we observed its transformation from an early focus on what predicts an individual's involvement in the criminal justice system, analyses of criminal justice processes and critical reflections on Australian law reforms (O’Connor, 1980), to the coverage of a broad range of topics from countries in the Global North and the Global South (Manning et al., 2014).
The journal's embrace of an internationally focused, “eclectic” criminology began in the early 1990s, during the time of Professor Ross Homel's editorial tenure (Homel, 1992, p. 194). In his opening editorial, Homel (1992) lamented the “low visibility” of the journal internationally and called for greater promotion to countries beyond Australia and New Zealand. Each editor who followed expressed a commitment to this change, which has undoubtedly led to the current focus and global readership of the journal.
In crafting our vision, we also turned to the work of scholars who have either heralded the death of criminology or proclaimed its potential and scope. We considered texts from Vold (1966), Cohen (1998), and the recent work of Braithwaite (2022). We engaged with the role that criminology has played, and continues to play, in the maintenance of colonising processes and the oppression and stigmatisation of Indigenous and First Nations peoples (Cunneen & Tauri, 2016; King, 2017). We also had conversations with esteemed colleagues in criminology who began their journeys as psychologists, sociologists, and feminist scholars. What these explorations have made clear is that what is seen to fit within criminology's canon is contested, at times uncomfortable and contradictory, and always changing.
In the coming years, it is our intention to showcase diverse views and perspectives. We believe the journal can and should contribute to the development of criminological scholarship by publishing rigorous, impactful, and cutting-edge research on a wide range of topics. We wish to publish the very best theory and research internationally and provide a space for scholars to disseminate, discuss and debate the critical issues in our field. We hope to receive manuscripts that are transformative, interdisciplinary, and help us to understand contemporary society. Importantly, we hope to publish research that challenges traditional wisdoms and offers new methodological and theoretical approaches.
As many of the previous editors have cautioned, our aspirations can only be realised if we are able to attract high-quality submissions. Criminology is relatively small when compared to other disciplines, yet criminologists have many fine journals in which to publish their research. So what, then, is our point of difference?
As editors, we do not want to shy away from the contentious conversations present in our discipline, or from the opportunity for research and analysis to inform activism. We have a clear plan towards an inclusive editorship that we believe will contribute to breaking down some of the silos that have been growing stronger across criminology in recent years. We feel this is necessary to constructively engage with the diversity of scholarship, debate and ideas in our discipline, and to respond to some of the current criticisms and challenges confronting criminology. We will encourage spaces for Indigenous and First Nations scholarship from around the globe.
To achieve these aims, we need to build trust. This will take time and transparent actions. We are grateful to have Professor Kyllie Cripps, Director of the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, as the journal's inaugural Indigenous and First Nations Associate Editor. Professor Cripps will work closely with us to develop initiatives that better support communities that have not found criminology a particularly welcoming space. This will include the development of an annual special issue that prioritises the scholarship of Indigenous and First Nations peoples and vulnerable and minoritised groups and communities.
We plan to use digital technologies to establish a stronger online presence, with the support of our Associate Editor (Digital), Professor Tom Holt, from Michigan State University. We will use this approach to showcase the excellent research published in the journal and to explore different ways to use developing technologies to advance theoretical and methodological debates in criminology, particularly for new and emerging scholars to share their research in an online, peer-reviewed format.
With our Editorial Board, we will work tirelessly to maintain a short turnaround review time, which we know is valued by scholars and a key selling point of the journal for attracting high-quality scholarship. Additionally, we will strive to shape the field by providing constructive and considered feedback to authors on all submissions to the journal, whether they proceed out to review or not. We see this as an important contribution to creating an intellectually engaged review process. Further, it is an approach that ultimately benefits criminology in assisting those with good ideas to advance and improve their work.
The successful execution of this plan requires a multi-institutional approach. We will be the first editorial team for the Journal of Criminology with representation from different universities. Monash and Griffith universities are globally recognised for their excellence in criminology and for valuing interdisciplinarity, excellence, internationalisation, relevance, and impact. These values are strongly aligned with our vision for the journal. We express our thanks to the Society for their support of our vision and allowing a shift from the patterns of the past.
A final note. We found it quite interesting that throughout the journal's history, editors have consistently acknowledged the importance of critical, independent research about deviance, crime, and criminal justice. Decades on, we find ourselves in the same position. As we write this editorial, society is facing significant issues of direct relevance to criminology: mass incarceration, the significant over-representation of minoritised communities in the criminal justice system, growing right-wing extremism, the emergence of new technological and environmental harms, and extreme inequality and segregation within many cities across the globe. It is our hope that in the coming years, we will receive submissions that offer new approaches to understanding, and ultimately addressing, the wicked problems we face.
We have a curious road ahead, and we look forward to the journey.