Ellen G. Cohn

Who are the most-cited scholars in major American criminology and criminal justice journals?

The analysis of citations makes it possible to identify influential scholars and topics during particular time periods. The advantages and problems of using citations are reviewed, and it is concluded that they provide a reasonably valid measure of the influence and prestige of scholars. The number of different articles (or books) in which a scholar is cited, however, may be a better measure than the total number of citations. The most-cited authors in six major American criminology and criminal justice journals in 1986–1990 (excluding self-citations) were determined. Travis Hirschi was most-cited in Criminology and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Marvin E. Wolfgang in Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Francis T. Cullen in Justice Quarterly, Robert M. Regoli in Journal of Criminal Justice, and Edwin I. Megargee in Criminal Justice and Behavior. Over all six journals, the most-cited authors were Marvin E. Wolfgang, Michael J. Hindelang, and Alfred Blumstein. Their influence was connected with the perceived importance of criminal career research and the longitudinal method, measuring crime and delinquency, and the prestigious National Academy of Sciences panel reports.

Changes in the most-cited scholars in twenty criminology and criminal justice journals between 1990 and 1995

Abstract The main aim of this research was to identify the most-cited scholars in twenty journals: five American criminology journals, five American criminal justice journals, five international criminology journals, and five international criminal justice journals. Results obtained in 1995 were compared with those obtained in 1990 and with those obtained from analyzing nine journals in 1986–90 and 1991–95. The most-cited scholars in all four lists were Travis Hirschi, Michael R. Gottfredson, David P. Farrington, Delbert S. Elliott, and Francis T. Cullen. The expansion from nine to twenty journals benefited international scholars such as John Braithwaite and Ronald V. G. Clarke, and scholars in less mainstream areas such as Richard J. Gelles. Lawrence W. Sherman was the most-cited scholar in these twenty journals in 1995, compared with Marvin E. Wolfgang in 1990.

Journal publications of Ph.D. graduates from American criminology and criminal justice programs

This article assesses the quality of 12 American doctoral programs by counting the number of publications of their Ph.D. graduates in a large number of criminology and criminal justice journals, and in 20 more “academic” journals. While half of the Ph.D. graduates had no publications, the 4 percent who were the most productive (the “stars”) accounted for one third of all journal articles. Publication rates up to graduation predicted publication rates after graduation. The University of Maryland, Michigan State University, the University of California at Irvine, Florida State University, and Sam Houston State University had the most productive Ph.D. graduates in academic journals. There was a significant correlation between the productivity of a programs Ph.D. graduates and the productivity of its faculty members. The academic publication rate was influenced most by prevalence (the percentage of Ph.D.s with at least one publication), rather than by the percentage of “stars” or the frequency of publications.

Assessing the quality of American doctoral program faculty in criminology and criminal justice, 1991–1995

This article assesses the quality of 299 faculty in 20 American doctoral programs in criminology and criminal justice by counting the number of citations of their work in six major American criminology and criminal justice journals published between 1991 and 1995. The University of Maryland, the University of Cincinnati, Rutgers University, and SUNY-Albany were the institutions with most citations. The individual faculty members most often cited were Francis T. Cullen (University of Cincinnati), Raymond Paternoster, Lawrence W. Sherman and Douglas A. Smith (all University of Maryland). The majority of the most-cited scholars in these six journals, however, were not members of criminology or criminal justice departments.

Even criminals take a holiday: Instrumental and expressive crimes on major and minor holidays

Based on routine activity (RA) theory, the authors hypothesized that crime rates would vary with both the type of crime and the type of holiday, with violent crimes occurring more frequently and property crimes occurring less frequently on major holidays that brought families together in the home. It was also hypothesized that minor holidays would have little or no impact on crime rates. These hypotheses were tested by subjecting data on calls for service in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1985, 1987, and 1988 to time series analyses. After controlling for time of day, day of week, month, four weather variables, the first day of the month, linear trend, and autocorrelation, regression analyses indicated that both violent and property crimes were significantly related to major (or legal) holidays, whereas neither type of crime was more likely to occur on minor holidays. Crimes of expressive violence were significantly more prevalent on major holidays, whereas property crimes were less frequent on those days.

Outdoor Temperature, Climate Control, and Criminal Assault The Spatial and Temporal Ecology of Violence

Based on the negative affect escape (NAE) model of heat and aggression, it was hypothesized that relationships between temperature and aggravated assaultswould be moderated by access to air conditioning. This hypothesis was tested by subjecting calls for service received by police in Dallas, Texas, to multivariate analyses of covariance that employed weather variables as predictors and controlled for the temporal variables of holidays, time of day, day of the week, and season of the year. As the NAE model predicts, assaults in probably climate-controlled settings were a linear function of temperature, whereas assaults in settings that probably lacked climate control declined after peaking at moderately high temperatures. The results are consistent with recent attempts to use the concept of social avoidance to integrate routine activity theory and psychological theories of aggression.

Global Warming and U.S. Crime Rates An Application of Routine Activity Theory

Two archival analyses were performed to examine the association between annual temperatures and U.S. crime rates. The first was based on area-averaged temperatures in the United States as a whole for the years 1950 through 1999. Box-Jenkins time-series analyses indicated that annual temperatures were associated with assault but not murder rates in analyses that controlled for yearly population, ethnicity, and three economic variables. The second analysis was based on state-centered crime rates from 1960 through 1998 and included the same controls. Contrary to the general aggression model, cross-sectional time-series analyses indicated that annual temperatures were associated with rates for assault, rape, robbery, burglary, and larceny, but not murder or motor vehicle theft. The results are consistent with a routine activity theory interpretation of everyday and criminal behavior.

Changes in the most-cited scholars in major american criminology and criminal justice journals between 1986–1990 and 1991–1995

Abstract The most-cited scholars in three major American criminology journals (Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency) and three major American criminal justice journals (Justice Quarterly, Journal of Criminal Justice, and Criminal Justice and Behavior) were determined for 1991–1995, and results were compared with those obtained for 1986 –1990. The most-cited scholars in the three criminology journals in 1991–1995 were Travis Hirschi, David P. Farrington, Michael R. Gottfredson, Delbert S. Elliott, and Robert J. Sampson. The most-cited scholars in the three criminal justice journals in 1991–1995 were Francis T. Cullen, John L. Hagan, Travis Hirschi, Lawrence W. Sherman, and James Q. Wilson. The most-cited works of the most-cited scholars in 1991–1995 were primarily theoretical or on longitudinal/criminal career research.

Where are they now? Trajectories of publication “stars” from American criminology and criminal justice programs

The present study examines research trajectories of 20 academic “stars” relative to scholarship in 20 prominent and 7 elite criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) journals. We employ a modest subset of career concepts (frequency, specialization, seriousness, and co‐offending) to identify divergent pathways open to CCJ professionals as they begin work in academe or subsequently shape more mature careers. Findings suggest that research productivity varies depending on the measure utilized (e.g., type of outlet; weighted or unweighted; standardized or unstandardized). Different measures of central tendency provide different snapshots of institutional output. Publication frequencies are found to be far greater among stars employed at Carnegie Research I institutions. Regarding research type‐mix, the stars tend to be more eclectic than specialized, with indications of a relationship between number of articles published and breadth of topic areas. Future directions for research are also discussed.

The most-cited scholars in criminal justice textbooks, 1989-1993

Abstract Although numerous citation analysis studies have examined the most-cited scholars in many different types of criminology and criminal justice publications, no study has ever examined who the most-cited scholars are in criminal justice textbooks. This article extends recent citation analysis studies by identifying and ranking the twenty-two most-cited scholars in sixteen introductory criminal justice textbooks published from 1989 to 1993. The list of the most-cited scholars in criminal justice textbooks is then compared to similar lists of the most-cited scholars in criminal justice journals and criminology textbooks. This comparison suggests that there are several avenues to prominence in textbooks and journals for scholars who conduct different types of crime-related research.