Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Beccaria

(On the death penalty) Seems so absurd to me that the laws, that are the expression of the public will, that hate and punish the murder, make one themselves, and, to dissuade citizens from the murder, order a public murder.
(Chapter XXVIII)

Edwin Sutherland & Donald Cressey
Edwin Sutherland & Donald Cressey

Principles of Criminology, 6th ed., (1960), p. 3 Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws…The objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding the process of law, crime and treatment.

Jock Young
Jock Young, The role of the police as amplifiers of deviancy"

The drug user evokes an immediate gut reaction, while most criminals are immediately understandable in both motives and life style. For the criminal is merely cheating at the rules of a game which the policeman himself plays, whereas the bohemian is skeptical of the validity of the game itself and casts doubts on the world-view of both policeman and criminal.

Banksy
Howard S. Becker, Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance

The drug user evokes an immediate gut reaction, while most criminals are immediately understandable in both motives and life style. For the criminal is merely cheating at the rules of a game which the policeman himself plays, whereas the bohemian is skeptical of the validity of the game itself and casts doubts on the world-view of both policeman and criminal.

William J. Chambliss
William J. Chambliss, (1975)

Criminality is simply not something that people have or don’t have; crime is not something some people do and others don’t. Crime is a matter of who can pin the label on whom, and underlying this sociopolitical process is the structure of social relations determined by the political economy.

Carol Smart
Carol Smart, Women, Crime and Criminology: A Feminist Critique

The innumerable studies of criminality and delinquency…are written largely by men, on the subject of men, for an audience of men….Ultimately a non-separatist social science must be the desired goal because men and women do not act separately in the social world they are not independent of each other and their inter-relationship is a fact of life. However, before this goal is achieved…reparative studies of women and the concerns of women by feminists, are vital

Jeff Ferrell
Jeff Ferrell , CULTURAL CRIMINOLOGY, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 25: 395-418

As an emergent orientation in sociology, criminology, and criminal justice, cultural criminology explores the convergence of cultural and criminal processes in contemporary social life. Drawing on perspectives from cultural studies, postmodern theory, critical theory, and interactionist sociology, and on ethnographic methodologies and media/textual analysis, this orientation highlights issues of image, meaning, and representation in the interplay of crime and crime control. Specifically, cultural criminology investigates the stylized frameworks and experiential dynamics of illicit subcultures; the symbolic criminalization of popular culture forms; and the mediated construction of crime and crime control issues.

Herman Schwendinger
Herman Schwendinger & Julian Schwendinger (1970), p. 137

Isn’t it time to raise serious questions about the assumptions underlying the definition of the field of criminology, when a man who steals a paltry sum can be called a criminal while agents of the State can, with impunity, legally reward men who destroy food so that price levels can be maintained whilst a sizable portion of the population suffers from malnutrition?

Cesare Beccaria
Edwin Sutherland & Donald Cressey
Jock Young
Banksy
William J. Chambliss
Carol Smart
Jeff Ferrell
Herman Schwendinger
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WHAT WE DO

We focus on carrying out and promoting criminological research,  pursuing innovative programmes and working on issues arising in the public agenda. Developing proposals and facilitating debate on issues related to criminology and criminal policy. Offering expertise in the delivery of teaching, research and consultancy in criminology. Supporting political, social, cultural and academic bodies. Raising public awareness on criminology and criminal policy.

IN WHICH WAY

Achieving our goals, we organise events such as conferences, lectures, seminars, public debates, etc. We schedule, develop and publish studies and the findings of our conferences, discussions and research studies in a constructive manner. We publicly express expert opinions on current issues relating to the criminological phenomena. We compose special working groups, comprised of members or external partners. We organize and participate in national and international conferences; communicate and collaborate with scientific groups, initiatives or associations that pursue the same goals. We encourage and promote collaboration through the use of interdisciplinary approaches with other bodies, centers or associations.

Objectives

  • Το study, research and promote criminology in the public agenda.
  • To submit proposals and make statements on issues relating to criminology and criminal policy.
  • To support political, social, cultural and scientific bodies in tackling crime.
  • To inform the development of evidence-based policy and practice in the field crime prevention.
  • To raise public awareness on issues concerning crime and its prevention.
  • To act as a cross-disciplinary forum for generating impact-led research around criminology.
  • To encourage the exchange, in a multidisciplinary setting, of those engaged in research, teaching, and practice so as to foster criminological scholarship, and to serve as a forum for the dissemination of criminological knowledge

Activities

  • Conferences, meetings, lectures, seminars, debates.
  • Criminological researches and reports.
  • Specific working groups consisting of members or external partners.
  • Cooperation in interdisciplinary approaches with other bodies, or centers or associations.
  • Interventions in local community in the context of crime prevention.

 

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