Criminal Justice and Social Policy

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores the developments at the intersection between crime safety and social policies. It aims to fill the existing gap in the literature on the topic generated by the high pace of change, which requires the integration of past empirical research and theoretical discussions. Exploring the current development at this crossroad is paramount to understand the present and future changes reshaping criminal justice administration, their implications in terms of human rights, fair trials and other fundamental justice values, the system’s capability to address the criminal phenomena and be compatible with social values.

The ongoing reconfiguration of contemporary society’s social and economic dimensions has resulted in consistent modifications of the criminal phenomena and its social perception. Several factors drive these changes, including information technology developments, increasing online social, work and economic interactions, changes in the provision mechanisms of welfare and health services, the reshaping of family and household structures, increasing the awareness of environmental challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic. The new criminal phenomena challenge the traditional approaches to the administration of criminal justice. At the same time, new legal, technological and organizational tools are being discussed, developed and implemented for the monitoring, investigation, prosecution and adjudication of crimes. Examples include the development of legal instruments for cross-border cooperation, such as the European Investigation Order; the adoption of technological platforms, such as the Schengen Information System; the use of artificial intelligence and big data (for instance, criminal, social and demographic) as a predictive tool to determine the people or places at risk; and shape policing and prosecution policies or support correctional measures or alternative sanctions.

This Special Issue aims to investigate the changes in crime policy, policing, prevention and punishment through empirical and theoretically grounded examples, and how they relate to the shifting narrative around safety and social policy. Given the nature of the topic, multidisciplinary approaches, including sociological, legal, organizational and information systems perspectives, are especially appreciated. The Special Issue is open to academics and practitioners. If you are a practitioner interested in contributing to this Special Issue and would like to discuss the opportunity to collaborate with an academic, please contact the Guest Editor for this Special Edition.

Suggest themes:

- Predictive systems and criminal justice;

- Cross-border judicial cooperation instruments;

- Pandemic and criminal justice policies;

- The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on criminal justice;

- Criminal justice in post-pandemic times;

- Victims and the role of victims in judicial proceedings;

- Domestic violence in the times of COVID-19;

- Socio-legal dimensions of pandemic restrictive measures;

- Sociomateriality of criminal justice;

- Environmental harm and environmental victims.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Suggested Literature:

Boutellier, H. (2001). The convergence of social policy and criminal justice. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 9(4), 361-380.

Carlile, P. R., Nicolini, D., Langley, A., & Tsoukas, H. (Eds.). (2013). How matter matters: Objects, artifacts, and materiality in organization studies. OUP Oxford.

Garland, D., & Sparks, R. (2000). Criminology, social theory and the challenge of our times. Brit. J. Criminology, 40, 189.

Hall, M. (2014). Environmental harm and environmental victims: Scoping out a ‘green victimology’. International Review of Victimology, 20(1), 129-143.

Mawby, R., & Walklate, S. (1994). Critical victimology: International perspectives. Sage

Velicogna, M. (2014). The making of Pan-European infrastructure: From the Schengen information system to the European arrest warrant. In The Circulation of Agency in E-Justice (pp. 185-215). Springer, Dordrecht.

Velicogna, M. (2021). Cross-Border Civil Litigation in the EU: What Can We Learn from COVID-19 Emergency National E-Justice Experiences?. European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities EQPAM, 10.

Dr. Marco Velicogna
Guest Editor

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• criminal justice
• judicial cooperation
• judicial reform
• social policies
• e-justice
• predictive justice
• COVID-19
• victims