American Society of Criminology
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The American Society of Criminology is an international organization which embraces scholarly, scientific, and professional knowledge regarding the etiology, prevention, control, and treatment of crime and delinquency. This includes the measurement and detection of crime, a review of legislation and the practice of criminal law, as well as an examination of the law enforcement, judicial, and correctional systems.
The Society's objective is to bring together a multi-disciplinary forum fostering criminological study, research, and education. members include practitioners, academicians, and students in the many fields of criminal justice and criminology.
The American Society of Criminology was organized in Berkeley, California in December of 1941. What began as a police science-oriented association conceived by eight men in the home of August Vollmer, has grown into perhaps the leading professional criminological association in the world.[1]
Today the American Society of Criminology is comprised of approximately 4,000 members from more than 40 countries. Roughly sixty-five percent of the membership is made up of university professors who engage in social and behavioral science-based criminological research. Students comprise approximately twenty-five percent of the membership, and employees of public and private entities another ten percent. Membership in the American Society of Criminology is open to any person interested in advancing the interests of the field.[2]
The American Society of Criminology seeks to fulfill its mission and purpose in part by holding an annual meeting. These meetings, usually held in November, attract nearly 3,000 persons from some 30 countries. These individuals participate in approximately 650 panels and plenary sessions that examine a wide range of crime related topics. The meetings also attract a large number of publishers who display their works in the exhibit hall. Other professional associations and journal editorial boards gather at the annual ASC meetings and hold business and organizations meetings of their own. A number of social events are also held in conjunction with this annual event.[3]
The Society publishes two journals and a newsletter. Receipt of these publications is incorporated in the annual membership fee. The journal Criminology has been published since 1963. It is generally regarded as the leading journal in the field, and is distributed widely. This journal, which is published quarterly, is dedicated to criminological research of an empirical, historical and comparative nature.[4]
The journal, Criminology & Public Policy has been published since 2001. The quarterly journal is devoted to the study of crime and justice policy and practice, with the objective of strengthening the role of research findings in the formulation of public policy in these arenas.[5]
The Society newsletter, The Criminologist, is published six times a year. Its pages are filled with news of the Society, short articles, notices of other professional association meetings, requests for proposals, calls for papers from various criminological publications, job announcements, and general information pertinent to the field.[6]
The Society has a web page that can be accessed at [12]. The web page has a membership directory, lists conferences and workshops as well as calls for papers and requests for proposals, is linked to graduate and undergraduate criminal justice/criminology programs, lists new Ph.D. graduates, has professional employment information, provides a variety of ASC organizational information, and has links to a wide range of sites including justice agencies, National Institute of Justice publications, and United Nations Crime Congress proceedings.
There are five divisions within the Society, namely:
- Corrections and Sentencing
- Critical Criminology [13]
- International Criminology [14]
- People of Color and Crime [15]
- Women and Crime [16]
Each of these divisions has a newsletter, a journal, and a web page which can be accessed off of the main ASC web page ([17]).
The American Society of Criminology is a non-profit organization, governed by an elected Executive Board. Officers consist of a President, President-Elect, an immediate Past-President, Vice-President, Vice-President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, the Executive Director, Editor of Criminology, Editor of Criminology & Public Policy, and six Executive Counselors. Day to day operations are handled by the administrative office which as of this writing is located on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.[7]
The Society sponsors a graduate and an undergraduate scholarship program, geared toward minority scholars. The Society gives a number of annual awards including a student paper award, outstanding published paper award, outstanding book award, and a number of service and professional contribution awards.[8] The Society also grants fellow status to those who have made significant lifetime contributions to the field.[9]
Because of the considerable diversity in the membership, the American Society of Criminology is not an advocate of any particular policy perspective. The only exception is an official opposition to capital punishment. The American Society of Criminology publicly condemns the use of the death penalty, and calls for an abolition of this form of punishment.[10]
The American Society of Criminology is active internationally, and has been granted Special Consultative Status within the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The Society has solid working relationships with professional criminology societies and associations worldwide, and continues to actively partner with international colleagues to further the growth and development of the field.
[edit] Notes
- ^ For a complete history of ASC, go to [1]
- ^ For more information, go to the ASC web page at [2]
- ^ Information regarding past and future ASC Annual Meetings can be found at [3]
- ^ Criminology abstracts can be found at [4]
- ^ Criminology & Public Policy abstracts can be found at [5]
- ^ Lead articles and other selected pages from The Criminologist can be found at [6]
- ^ A list of current officers can be found at [7]. A list of past and present ASC presidents can be found at [8]
- ^ For more information regarding ASC awards, see [9]
- ^ For more information regarding the ASC Fellows, see [10]
- ^ The complete statement from the American Society of Criminology regarding the death penalty can be accessed at [11]
