By: Hai Thanh Luong

After the Silk Road closure, many studies started focusing on the trend and patterns of darknet-related crimes in the 2010s. This frst study combined a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis in the feld. This study clarifes 49 articles in criminology and penology among 1150 publications relating to the darknet on the Web of Science database to review and analyze the research evolutions of this topic in the last decade. The main fndings point out (1) almost all leading authors with their most infuential papers came from the Global South with predominant contributions; (2) unbalancing publications between regional scholars and their institutions and countries although the darknet-related criminals occurred and operated without border; and (3) some specialized themes have identifed to call further extensive research such as policing interventions in the darknet and fows of the cryptocurrency in cryptomarkets, among others.

Security Journal (2024) 37:535–574

By Georgina Ireland, Linda Wijlaars, Matthew A Jay, Claire Grant, Rachel Pearson, Johnny Downs and Ruth Gilbert

This study aimed to determine the risk of mothers being involved in public law family court care proceedings and their social and health characteristics by analysing linked administrative family court and healthcare records. Involvement in care proceedings reflects serious concerns for the care or safety of a child. Local Authority (LA) social care departments can bring care proceedings under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989 due to concerns about significant harm, or risk of significant harm to the child attributable to care given by the parents or the child being beyond parental control. Each year, around 10,000 mothers in England are involved in care proceedings. In 80% of these proceedings, the child is placed with friends or family, unrelated foster carers, in residential care or for adoption. One fifth remain with one or both birth parents, with or without a supervision order.

Recent developments in national and regional linkages of administrative health data to family court or social services data have contributed insights into maternal health needs in Wales, Sweden and Canada, but evidence is lacking for England (5-15). Similar linked data for England would contribute new insights due to the population size, the regional and ethnic variation in England, and variability in determinants of service access and outcomes across different population subgroups. From a policy and practice perspective, evidence from linked data on the health of parents involved in family court care proceedings could inform how and when healthcare and related services could intervene to improve parental health and support, and thereby prevent or mitigate child maltreatment, and in some cases, avoid care proceedings.

Aims and objectives

This study aimed to address the evidence gap in England on the health of mothers involved in care proceedings compared with their peers. We conducted two sub-studies:

1. In the first, we studied all first-time mothers between 2007-19 in the English NHS, including those involved in care proceedings, to:

• Create a database of first-time mothers using hospital admission data, linked to care proceedings in England and assess linkage accuracy.

• Estimate the 10-year risk of care proceedings for first-time mothers in England and describe differences in maternal social and health characteristics at a first birth.

• Compare the number of births within 10 years to first-time mothers involved and not involved in care proceedings.

• Assess maternal and birth characteristics associated with recurrent care proceedings.

• Estimate differences in mortality among mothers involved and not involved in care proceedings.

2. Second, we studied mothers involved in care proceedings and other women using mental health service records in four LAs in south London to:

• Create a research database that linked records of mothers involved in care proceedings in south London to mental health service data and assess linkage accuracy.

• Compare the characteristics of mental health service use among mothers involved in care proceedings and other women using mental health services.

• Compare the risk of death among mothers involved in care proceedings with other women using mental health services.

• Evaluate patterns of mental health service use before and after start of care proceedings.

London: Nuffield Foundation, 2024. 63p.

By The Justice Policy Institute

The presence of law enforcement in schools has been a controversial issue for decades. Dual concerns about rising rates of violence among youth coupled with increased attention paid to school shootings were a catalyst for federal funding for more police, frequently referred to as “School Resource Officers” (SROs), in schools. In fact, rates of youth violence were plummeting independent of law enforcement interventions and the impact of SROs on school shootings has been dubious at best. Additionally, SROs have been linked with exacerbating racial disparities in justice involvement and youth being driven deeper into the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. Rather than preventing crime, SROs have been linked with increased arrests for non-criminal, youthful behavior, commonly known as the school-to-prison pipeline.  

Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 2020. 8p.

By Véronique Strimelle et Françoise Vanhamme

This volume commemorates the 40th anniversary of the University of Ottawa’s Department of Criminology, founded in 1968. It relates the history of the department from its origins to today, focusing on the theoretical debates that have influenced its critical and self-reflexive approach to criminology. The contributions to this volume continue in that vein by questioning the traditional perspective of criminology on a variety of topics including police studies, mental health, political violence, suicide, and crime prevention. Rights and Voices reveals the significant role that the University of Ottawa has played in redefining criminology to advocate activism, social justice, and compassion.

University of Ottawa Press / Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, 2010. 284p.

By Dana Stripling; Rick Dierenfeldt; Grant Drawve; Christina Policastro; Gale Iles

An extensive body of literature has described the influence of neighborhood characteristics, including socio-economic deprivation, residential turnover, and racial/ethnic composition on gun crime. There have been limited efforts, however, to examine the extent to which these effects might vary based on the nature of gun crime—particularly in communities outside of major cities like Chicago or St. Louis. This study attempts to address this issue through the application of negative binomial regression and equality of coefficients tests to data obtained from the crime logs and American Community Survey data of a medium-sized city in the Southeastern U.S. Specifically, this study examines (in)equality in the structural covariates of gun crimes when these offenses are disaggregated by gang-involved gun crime versus non-gang involved gun crime. Results indicate that the relative influence of neighborhood structural characteristics varies by gun crime type, illustrating the need for disaggregated measures for developing effective policy and assessment.  

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chattanooga, Tennessee , 2023. 56p.  

By Rick Dierenfeldt, Grant Drawve, Joshua May, Ellee Jackson

A growing body of literature has explored the ‘life course’ of crime guns, with a particular focus on the time between the initial point of sale of firearms and their eventual recovery by police following a crime. We contend that this examination is incomplete, with limited consideration given to the period between a firearm's first known use in a criminal offense and its recovery by police—which we refer to as time in crime. Increased understanding of this time frame is important given that crime guns are frequently recirculated among criminally involved groups and the recent finding that time in circulation following first known use in a crime is a significant predictor of multiple uses of crime guns. We add to the literature through the application of negative binomial regression to a sample of 310 crime guns used in offenses in a city in the Southeastern United States to examine how neighborhood context and initial incident characteristics influence the number of days that firearms remain in circulation after their first known use in a crime. We found that increased levels of concentrated disadvantage and gang involvement during the original incident correspond with significant increases in time in crime, while increased levels of residential stability and the ability of police to identify suspects are linked with more rapid recovery of crime guns. Notably, these findings hold even after the inclusion of popular time-to-crime covariates, including firearm quality, caliber, and status as a stolen gun. 

Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 49 Dated: July 2024 Pages: 723-744

By Sarah A. Font and Reeve Kennedy

Despite sufficient evidence to conclude that maltreatment exposure affects the risk of crime and delinquency, the magnitude and specificity of effects of child maltreatment on crime and delinquency and the mechanisms through which those effects operate remain poorly identified. Key challenges include insufficient attention to the overlap of child maltreatment with various forms of family dysfunction and adversity and a lack of comprehensive measurement of the multiple, often comorbid, forms of child maltreatment. We then consider the potential impacts of the child welfare system on the maltreatment–crime link. Because the child welfare system typically provides voluntary, short-term services of unknown quality, it likely neither increases nor reduces risks of delinquency and crime for most children who are referred or investigated. For the comparatively small (although nominally large and important) subset of children experiencing foster care, impacts on delinquency and crime likely vary by the quality of environments within and after their time in care—issues that, to date, have received too little attention.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:371–96

By Caylin Louis Moore, and Forrest Stuart

For nearly a century, gang scholarship has remained foundational to criminological theory and method. Twenty-first-century scholarship continues to refine and, in some cases, supplant long-held axioms about gang formation, organization, and behavior. Recent advances can be traced to shifts in the empirical social reality and conditions within which gangs exist and act. We draw out this relationship—between the ontological and epistemological—by identifying key macrostructural shifts that have transformed gang composition and behavior and, in turn, forced scholars to revise dominant theoretical frameworks and analytical approaches. These shifts include large-scale economic transformations, the expansion of punitive state interventions, the proliferation of the Internet and social media, intensified globalization, and the increasing presence of women and LGBTQ individuals in gangs and gang research. By introducing historically unprecedented conditions and actors, these developments provide novel opportunities to reconsider previous analyses of gang structure, violence, and other related objects of inquiry.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:299–320  

By Mark T. Berg and Christopher J. Schreck

The criminological theory developed without an expectation of a victim-offender overlap. Among most crime theorists and policymakers, to solve crime it is necessary to solve the criminal offender. Modern choice theories took a different view by evolving from victim data, treating target vulnerability as essential to the criminal act and with full awareness of the overlap. Here, we discuss the emphasis on offenders in criminology as being inconsistent with the facts of the overlap. The evidence shows that the victim-offender overlap is consistently found, implying that offending and victimization arise for similar substantive reasons and that offenders act principally in response to targets. This conclusion has important implications. First, any theory of crime that cannot logically predict the overlap as a fact may be subject to falsification. Second, the choice perspective suggests a theory of precautionary behavior, which urges a policy agenda that encourages actions against crime by potential targets.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:277–97  

By Steven Raphael

I review the growing body of research that either directly assesses the effect of Ban the Box (BTB) on the employment prospects of those with criminal histories, tests for spillover effects operating through statistical discrimination, or assesses the labor-market impacts of related screening practices. I begin with a theoretical discussion that works through how widespread reluctance to hire those with criminal histories is likely to generate market-level employment and earnings penalties for various groups of workers, and how the size and distribution of these penalties likely depend on the information available to employers. I then turn to a review of research over the past 15 years or so that either directly assesses the impact of BTB or addresses highly related and relevant research questions. The weight of the empirical evidence suggests that BTB does not improve the employment prospects of those with criminal histories at private-sector employers, although there is some evidence of an improvement in employment prospects in the public sector. Regarding spillover effects operating through statistical discrimination, several studies indicate that BTB harms the employment prospects of African-American men. Furthermore, research on the effects of credit checks, occupational licensing, and drug testing appears to indicate that more information available to the employer improves the employment prospects of African Americans. Collectively, these findings imply that in the absence of objective information, employers place weight on stereotypes about the characteristics of black workers that are generally negative and inaccurate.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2021. 4:191–207

By Anthony A. Braga, Elizabeth Griffiths, Keller Sheppard, and Stephen Douglas

One of the central debates animating the interpretation of gun research for public policy is the question of whether the presence of firearms independently makes violent situations more lethal, known as an instrumentality effect, or whether determined offenders will simply substitute other weapons to affect fatalities in the absence of guns. The latter position assumes sufficient intentionality among homicide assailants to kill their victims, irrespective of the tools available to do so. Studies on the lethality of guns, the likelihood of injury by weapon type, offender intent, and firearm availability provide considerable evidence that guns contribute to fatalities that would otherwise have been nonfatal assaults. The increasing lethality of guns, based on size and technology, and identifiable gaps in existing gun control policies mean that new and innovative policy interventions are required to reduce firearm fatalities and to alleviate the substantial economic and social costs associated with gun violence.

Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 147–164

By Shadd Maruna, and Marieke Liem

Over the past decade, a growing body of literature has emerged under the umbrella of narrative criminology. We trace the origins of this field to narrative scholarship in the social sciences more broadly and review the recent history of criminological engagement in this field. We then review contemporary developments, paying particular attention to research around desistance and victimology. Our review highlights the most important critiques and challenges for narrative criminology and suggests fruitful directions in moving forward. We conclude by making a case for the consolidation and integration of narrative criminology, in hopes that this movement becomes more than an isolated clique.

Annual Review of Criminology Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 125–146

By Christopher R. Browning, Nicolo P. Pinchak, and Catherine A. Calder

This review outlines approaches to explanations of crime that incorporate the concept of human mobility—or the patterns of movement throughout space of individuals or populations in the context of everyday routines—with a focus on novel strategies for the collection of geographically referenced data on mobility patterns. We identify three approaches to understanding mobility–crime linkages: (a) Place and neighborhood approaches characterize local spatial units of analysis of varying size concerning the intersection in space and time of potential offenders, victims, and guardians; (b) person-centered approaches emphasize the spatial trajectories of individuals and person–place interactions that influence crime risk; and (c) ecological network approaches consider links between persons or collectivities based on shared activity locations, capturing influences of broader systems of interconnection on spatial- and individual-level variation in crime. We review data collection strategies for the measurement of mobility across these approaches, considering both the challenges and promise of mobility-based research for criminology.

Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 99–123

By Susanne Karstedt, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Laura C. Frizzell

Surprisingly, scholars studying mass atrocity and genocide have frequently sidelined criminological theories and concepts. Other disciplines have addressed these crimes while mostly ignoring criminological insights and theories. In this review, we assess the potential of criminological theories to contribute to explaining and preventing mass atrocities and genocide, highlight criminological insights from the study of these crimes, and unlock the existing criminological knowledge base for application in the context of these crimes. We begin by outlining how mass atrocities and genocide are similar to other crimes that criminologists have routinely studied. We then turn toward frameworks of structural causation, focusing on the state and community levels. Subsequently, we address micro-level theories that inform why individuals commit such violence, ranging from theories of choice, the life course, and techniques of neutralization to social learning theory and theories of desistance from crime. Finally, we address the victims of genocide and mass atrocity, including the factors associated with victim labels and victimhood itself.

Annual Review of Criminology, Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 75–97

By Tim Newburn

This review explores those varied bodies of work that have sought to understand crowd behavior and violent crowd conduct in particular. Although the study of such collective conduct was once considered central to social science, this has long ceased to be the case and in many respects, the study of protest and riot now receives relatively little attention, especially within criminology. In addition to offering a critical overview of work in this field, this review argues in favor of an expanded conception of its subject matter. In recent times, scholarly concern has increasingly been focused on questions of etiology, i.e., asking how and why events such as riots occur, with the consequence that less attention is paid to other, arguably equally important questions, including how riots spread, how they end, and, critically, what happens in their aftermath. Accordingly, as a corrective, the review proposes a life-cycle model of riots.

ANNUAL REVIEW OF CRIMINOLOGY, Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 53–73

By Christopher Uggen, Ráchael A. Powers, Heather McLaughlin, and Amy Blackstone

Public attention to sexual harassment has increased sharply with the rise of the #MeToo movement, although the phenomenon has sustained strong scientific and policy interest for almost 50 years. A large and impressive interdisciplinary scholarly literature has emerged over this period, yet the criminology of sexual harassment has been slow to develop. This review considers how criminological theory and research can advance knowledge on sexual harassment—and how theory and research on sexual harassment can advance criminological knowledge. We review classic and contemporary studies and highlight points of engagement in these literatures, particularly regarding life-course research and violence against women. After outlining prospects for a criminology of sexual harassment that more squarely addresses perpetrators as well as victims, we discuss how criminological insights might contribute to policy efforts directed toward prevention and control.
Annual Review of Criminology Vol. 4 (2021), pp. 33–51

May Contain Mark-Ups

Edited by Nick Tilley and Graham Farrell

“The Reasoning Criminologist”is a tribute to Professor Ronald V. Clarke, celebrating his significant contributions to criminology and crime science, particularly in situational crime prevention. Edited by Nick Tilley and Graham Farrell, the book features essays from leading criminologists who are Clarke’s colleagues or former students. These essays cover theoretical and empirical contributions to situational crime prevention, rational choice theory, environmental criminology, evaluation, and problem-oriented policing.

Situational Crime Prevention (SCP): Clarke’s development of SCP focuses on reducing crime opportunities through environmental design and management,increasing the effort and risks for offenders, and reducing rewards.Problem-Oriented Policing (POP): Clarke’s work has significantly influenced POP,which emphasizes addressing specific problems through scientific methods and careful analysis.

British Crime Survey: Clarke played a crucial role in establishing this survey,which provided valuable data on unrecorded crime and influenced SCP strategies.

Focused Deterrence Strategies: The book discusses the integration of SCP with focused deterrence strategies, which involve identifying key offenders, leveraging a variety of sanctions, and directly communicating with offenders to deter crime.

Multidisciplinary Approach: The Crime Science Series, edited by Richard Wortley,presents crime science as a multidisciplinary approach involving criminology, sociology, psychology, geography, economics, architecture, industrial design, epidemiology, computer science, mathematics, engineering, and biology.

Routledge, 2013, 260 pages

May Contain Mark-Ups

Edited by Benoit Leclerc and Richard Wortley

The book “Cognition and Crime” explores the rational choice perspective in criminology, focusing on how offenders make decisions and how these decisions can be analyzed to prevent crime. Edited by Benoit Leclerc and Richard Wortley, the book brings together international researchers to delve into various crimes such as stalking, drug dealing, human trafficking, child sexual abuse, and illegal wildlife trade.

Key themes include:

Rational Choice Perspective: This framework views criminal behavior as purposeful and influenced by the perceived costs and benefits of actions.

Crime Script Analysis: This method breaks down the sequence of actions in a crime to identify points where interventions can prevent criminal activities.

Situational Crime Prevention:Strategies are discussed to modify environments to reduce opportunities for crime and control situational precipitators.

The book also examines the cognitive processes and decision-making strategies of offenders, highlighting factors like stress, impulsiveness, and premeditation. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the offender-victim interchange, especially in crimes like child sexual abuse, to develop effective prevention and intervention strategies. Overall, “Cognition and Crime” aims to enhance situational crime prevention by integrating insights from cognitive psychology and criminology, providing a comprehensive approach to understanding and preventing criminal behavior.

Routledge, Aug 15, 2013, 261 pages

By Michael J. Lynch1, and Michael A. Long2

Green criminology has developed into a criminological subfield with a substantial literature. That literature is so vast that a single review cannot do it justice. This article examines the definition of green crime, the historical development of green criminology, some major areas of green criminological research, and potential future developments. Unlike traditional criminology with its focus on human victims, green criminology recognizes that various living entities can be victims of the ways in which humans harm ecosystems. Green research thus explores crime, victimization, and justice from several theoretical positions that acknowledge these unique victims. Although green criminology contains several approaches, this review primarily focuses on political economic green criminology. The section titled The Definition, Overview, and Historical Development of Green Criminology identifies, but does not review in depth, other forms of green criminology.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:255–76  

By Issa Kohler-Hausmann

After featuring prominently in early law and society research, the study of sub-felony enforcement and processing was largely eclipsed by the study of mass incarceration. Of late, the subject matter has enjoyed a resurgence. This review addresses what things might be included in a study of sub-felonies, what aspects about them researchers have studied, and why it might be theoretically interesting to study them.

Annu. Rev. Criminol. 2022. 5:229–53