Chris Eskridge

The State of the Field of Criminology: Brief Essay

This article suggests that although crime and deviance are subject to the dynamics of global socio-economic-political events, the field of criminology can have a marked, positive impact in this realm. To achieve this end, there is a need to advance interdisciplinary criminology and/or criminal justice education worldwide, to embrace systematic, evidence-based program and policy evaluation, and to become effective political and scientific criminologists. Criminology is not a mature science at this point, and we are not certain how to systematically respond to the crime problem. We lack accurate diagnostic instruments, a definitive body of knowledge, and an understanding of cause and effect, and we do not possess a series of generally consistent treatment modalities. In this context, criminologists are somewhat akin to physicians of the 18th century.

Criminal justice education and its potential impact on the sociopolitical-economic climate of Central European nations: A short essay

It is proposed that efforts be undertaken to develop academic departments of criminal justice within the Central European higher educational systems. It is my proposition that, in time, this strategic plan will reduce the scope and extent of corruption in these nations and will generally move crime into a more manageable context. This in turn will yield an enhanced opportunity for Central European nations to secure external investment, realize increased economic stability, and eventually participate to a greater degree in the global market economy.

Students of Criminal Justice: a National Survey

This study was supported by the Joint Commission on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards. The author wishes to thank Vince Webb for his assistance in the project.

A New Paradigm for Criminal Justice Education: Some Reflections On a Crime Management Approach by

The study of’Crrmtna! Justice has been cotored in many cirfferent fashions by many different authors and scholars. t t has been and continues to be a frscitonalized, mixed t>aQ of tht~ciry, tdfotoqy. facts and notions. In gerwral terms, the (1,-velopnwnt of criminal justice has been perpetrated and p&dquo;foetuatRd due to the tedhnicai, industrial, and commercia ! &dquo; voiutton which has enlfuff~l twcntteth century Arnerma. This awokening has increase() the nature, variety. and diversity r~f the needs and domerwfs of the majority, as well as those of the <’mergtnq mit~ority. tncreesed minority awareness and the c~neral knowiedge explosion has brought on an every increasing pressure for more goverhment goods and services while at the same time cutting costs ~is.g., the Proposition 13 movementl. Consequently. such demands have forced ’¥)V~rnrnent to attempt to provide a wide vareetv of goods and services at an every increasing rate of efficiency and equity, While the criminal justice system ’has been called upon to deal with many of these problems. it has lacked both the resources and the know how to resolve, or, in many .stances, even address them. It is our argument that the ftiture capacity of aimina! Justice to respond to these issues [P,;t5, ;n iarq~ part, upon its academic vibrancy.

Book Reviews : Criminal Justice: A Public Policy Approach, by J. P. Levine, M. C. Musheno, D. J. Palumbo; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York: 600 pages, (hardcover):

As many have lamented, much of what passes for theory in criminal justice today is merely labeling of concepts and phenomena. Criminal justice processes are too difficult to analyze because the fundamental units are so evasive, and sound theories of cause and consequence are virtually unknown (for an interesting commentary on the general state of the social and behavioral sciences see, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1980). But perhaps the capacity of mankind to grasp and understand must evolve from phenomenological descriptions to descriptions of process, to theories of cause and consequence; from what to how to wh,y. Criminal Justice as a field of study is in the midst of this evolutionary process and now seems to be moving from a descriptive orientation to a process model. For this reason, Levine, Musheno and Palumbo may be one step ahead of the rest of the field, for they have prepared a text that addresses, from a systematic orientation, a perspective of cause and