One retrospective of Pacific criminology
| Author | John Braithwaite |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865812470385 |
| Published date | 01 April 2013 |
| Date | 01 April 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
46(1) 3–11
!The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865812470385
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Article
One retrospective of Pacific
criminology
John Braithwaite
Australian National University, Australia
Abstract
On the occasion of receiving the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology’s
Distinguished Criminologist Award, John Braithwaite reflects on his time in the field. He
defends a public-critical-professional-policy criminology of a more distinctively Pacific char-
acter. He canvasses options for the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology to
continue long-term leadership towards not only an Asian future, but also a Pacific future that
can be a path to distinctive contributions from Southwest Pacific criminology to all the social
sciences.
Keywords
Asian future, criminology, Pacific
It is a lovely honour, though I feel something of a phony receiving the Australian and
New Zealand Society of Criminology’s Distinguished Criminologist Award. One reason
is that I can think of a good number of more worthy criminologists. Another is that I do
not really consider myself a criminologist, rather as an interdisciplinary social scientist. I
do not correct people when they describe me so and on questionnaires tick my nearest
discipline as criminology. One of the unusual, I would like to think admirable, things
about criminology is that it has been so kind to figures who have stood against the
tradition in some way. Consider the fond regard British criminologists have toward Stan
Cohen or Scandinavian criminologists to Nils Christie. Perhaps it is something about a
society of people who take an interest in deviants.
While I do not think it a great idea for criminology to be a discipline, gatherings of
folk who study crime are very important. The ANZ Society of Criminology has been a
nurturant community of scholarship and fellowship for me, as for so many of us. Robust
contestation of ideas does not seem to get in the way of a spirit of fun and sharing yarns.
The Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology is important because this local
community is important. That is why I have submitted more articles to this journal than
to any other, including some that I consider among my best (among a crop that include
Corresponding author:
John Braithwaite, Regulatory Institutions Network, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University,
Coombs Extension Building, Fellows Rd, Canberra 0200, Australia.
Email: john.braithwaite@anu.edu.au
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