Wider and deeper: The future of criminology in Europe
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370813500885 |
| Author | David J. Smith |
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Criminology
2014, Vol 11(1) 3 –22
© The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370813500885
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Wider and deeper: The future
of criminology in Europe
David J. Smith
London School of Economics, UK
Abstract
The European Journal of Criminology was launched 10 years ago. In this article, the journal’s founding
editor, David J. Smith, reflects on the journal’s contribution to European criminology. The article
recalls the ambitions for the journal when the idea was first discussed, and looks back over the
first nine volumes to assess the extent to which these ambitions have been fulfilled. It argues that
the study of crime must draw on both humanist and scientific traditions. Because its moral and
political dimensions are inescapable, criminology is bound to have a contested relationship with
government. The weaknesses of the journal so far have been on the humanist and critical side,
with an associated lack of deep and detailed qualitative research. Among the many strengths are
lively and varied comparative studies, research using innovative methods, and articles that open
up new fields and shift the emphasis away from minor offending by juveniles. Building on this
base, this article discusses the role the journal should play in creating the future of European
criminology.
Keywords
European criminology, history of criminology, research impact, research methods
Introduction
Introducing the first issue of this journal in January 2004 I argued that, even if criminol-
ogy was embryonic or nascent in much of Europe, a number of forces were driving its
development. Crime control, criminal justice and security, often in an unholy mix with
responses to immigration, were increasingly important in the politics of many European
countries. France and Poland were key examples, although the politicization of crime
had happened earlier in the UK. As a consequence, the political class had begun to see
criminology as a resource, and governments had played a major role in funding centres
of criminological research that were bound to develop the capacity to bite the hands that
Corresponding author:
David J. Smith, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.
Email: d.j.smith1@blueyonder.co.uk
500885EUC11110.1177/1477370813500885European Journal of CriminologySmith
research-article2014
Article
4 European Journal of Criminology 11(1)
fed them. Heightened awareness of human rights issues gave a different impetus to crim-
inology’s development, especially in the long-continued aftermath to September 2001,
when the United States had itself used torture and subcontracted its use to accomplice
governments. A third driving force was the rising importance of transnational crime, both
economic and political, and the concomitant growth of cross-national enforcement insti-
tutions and associated laws such as those to streamline extradition.
When the idea of launching this journal was first discussed in 2001–2, there was a
sense that criminology in Europe was near a tipping point, and that once this point had
been reached there would be rapid growth. The purpose of the new journal was ‘to sup-
port and stimulate that growth by providing a forum for research and scholarship on
crime and criminal justice institutions’ (Smith, 2004: 5). Whereas criminology had
tended to be dominated by American concerns and intellectual agendas, the journal
hoped to nurture a distinctively European criminology addressing European concerns
and making use of the rich variety of politics, culture, and social and economic condi-
tions among European countries. This naturally led to an emphasis on comparative
research, since comparing European countries is more difficult but potentially more
rewarding than comparing US states. At the same time, the journal aimed to facilitate
exchange of information and ideas between European and north American criminology.
Ten years after the journal was launched, this article looks backwards and forwards.
It looks back at what has been published so far to consider whether expectations have
been fulfilled. Given the strengths and weaknesses of the output, it also looks ahead to
the future development of European criminology and the role that a European journal
should play. To give form and meaning to the assessment, it is essential to start by con-
sidering what criminology is and ought to be.
What is criminology?
As I suggested when introducing the first issue of this journal, criminology is not a
sacred flame with its select band of adepts – and not a single, coherent system of thought.
At its best it is a group of people who use a bag of tools to think about crime and its theo-
retical and practical implications and to test their ideas against good evidence. The pur-
pose of the enterprise is to inform moral and political choices. On this view, criminology
is not an academic discipline but a subject or field, and practitioners’ bags are filled with
the instruments of many trades: history, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, the philoso-
phy of law, and so on.
In his inaugural lecture as professor of penology at the University of Edinburgh, David
Garland (1997) explained that he had chosen that designation of his chair because penol-
ogy is ‘the master discipline’ and criminology ‘a subsidiary field of study’. As the recently
installed professor of criminology at the same university, I could easily have resented this
academic land-grab, except that I had to recognize the nugget of truth in the argument.
The truth is that criminology is defined by the social practices and institutions for dealing
with crime and deviance. The legal apparatus and the practices of punishment and regula-
tion define and therefore create crime and deviance, rather than simply responding to
crime as a social fact coming from outside the control systems and conceived indepen-
dently of them. For this reason, punishment is more fundamental than crime. Also, crime
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