Nuclear and radiation safety as object of criminological research

Ensuring nuclear and radiation safety is one of the most important components of the national security of the Russian Federation. Taking into account the increased level of risks (including criminal ones) inherent in modern society, the problem of the safe use of nuclear energy is becoming one of the main ones, not only at the national but also at the international level. The article substantiates the importance of the criminological approach in the study of this phenomenon, raises the issues of criminalization of the use of atomic energy within the framework of nuclear and radiation safety of the state, provides examples of criminal threats that arise when using the energy of atomic nuclei. Particular attention is paid to the lack of high-quality criminological research conducted in the designated area of public relations, where offenses of various properties are often committed, which directly or potentially lead or may lead to serious, and sometimes irreversible consequences, which indicates the need to pay due attention to it, despite the relatively small number of crimes committed. As a result of the conducted research and in order to improve the criminological security system when using a peaceful atom, the author concludes that it is necessary to implement an integrated approach to solving these problems and suggests those areas of activity that require increased attention, including from law enforcement agencies.

Cultural Criminology and Ethnography

This chapter explores the many dynamics linking cultural criminology and ethnography and outlines the distinctive features of cultural criminological ethnography. The chapter first notes the ethnographic sensibility on which cultural criminology is constructed and summarizes some of the foundational ethnographies in cultural criminology. It next documents the dynamic interplay between ethnography and theory in cultural criminology, especially in regard to the concept of verstehen. The chapter then considers ethnographic innovations in cultural criminology, among them instant ethnography, liquid ethnography, visual ethnography, and autoethnography. A larger innovation is also explicated: cultural criminological employment of ethnography as an alternative epistemology within criminology, and a methodological critique of conventional criminological research. The chapter concludes with two discussions: cultural criminology’s use of ethnographic research findings as counterpoint and corrective to harmful criminal justice policies, and the trajectory of cultural criminological ethnography as it increasingly engages with interdisciplinary approaches, and explores issues of absence, drift, and ephemerality.

A farewell to the lone hero researcher: team research and writing

Criminology have long celebrated the lone hero researcher. Doing and writing up research in solitude has been the key to academic success and institutional promotions. However, the social sciences in general have increasingly moved towards more collaborative ways of doing research, and co-authorship has become more common. In this study, we summarize and discuss the pros and cons of working in teams when doing qualitative research. Drawing upon our own experiences from Mexico and Norway, we argue for a radical approach to team research and co-authorship, which we describe as team writing. Most importantly, we suggest opening up to include stakeholders and community partners, thus challenging the borders between researchers and those researched. This is arguably particularly important for research done in the academic, geographical and topical periphery of criminology. Team research and writing answers some of the critique of power inequality, representativity and lack of diversity in contemporary academic research. We also believe that team research, and writing, can make criminological research more multifaceted, reflexive, and thus better.

Use of selected types of crime analysis in modern criminological science

The article considers methods of analysis of criminological significant information, which are used in modern criminological science. Based on the analytical study, it was concluded that at the current stage of the development of criminological science, regression (as a type of mathematical method), factor (causal), and monitoring criminological analysis are most often used. These methods of criminological analysis were analyzed, their advantages and disadvantages were determined, their recommendations for their application in criminological science were given. It was established that the use of regression analysis is not found in many criminological studies, but today this direction has been updated due to the increase in crime rates both in Ukraine and in the world. However, in criminology, this direction is now one of the promising in the formation of crime prevention measures. It has been proved that most often this type of criminological analysis is used as monitoring. It is quite often used in criminological research by analyzing statistical reporting, which is publicly available to law enforcement agencies (in particular, on the official website of the Office of the Prosecutor General). In this regard, science identifies types of monitoring analysis, which is most often used in our country.

Developing Authenticity, Building Connections: Exploring Research Methodologies in Asia

The article considers the methodological opportunities and challenges associated with three large-scale ethnographic studies conducted in Bangladesh, China, and Nepal. It reflects on how locally and regionally embedded cultural practises and meanings shape Asian criminological research projects. The article argues that conducting research in certain Asian contexts benefits from an awareness and sensitivity to specific modalities of culture in these regions. The following deliberations reflect on the importance of developing authenticity and building connections, embedded within concepts specific, and relevant to research in Asia—relationality, guanxi, patronage, and adda. The challenges of the research projects, of which there were many, are also discussed and include dichotomies between research conducted in the global North and global South, coloniality, ethics, and issues faced by a British researcher, conducting research in Asia.

The Imperative Need for Criminological Research on the European Roma: A Narrative Review

Except for the knowledge that the Roma people endure harsh conditions and are victims of discrimination, scarce criminological research has given detailed attention to further victimisation or offending among the Romanies. Identifying articles in the browsers Web of Science, Google Scholar and Google, we reviewed European publications (1997–2020) in English, French, Romanian or Spanish that addressed the Roma’s victimisation or offending. The 44 studies that matched our criteria suggested that (1) Roma people are victims of hate crimes with devastating consequences; (2) Roma children and women are victims of domestic violence to a greater degree than other groups, although the Roma tend to oppose violence against women; (3) forced early marriages exist among some Romanies and may cause serious problems in adulthood; (4) youth delinquency among the Roma does not differ from that of the non-Roma, although Roma adolescents face more deprivation; (5) Roma men and women are overrepresented in prison and face many difficulties in re-entering society once they are released and (6) there are organised criminal activities in some Roma groups that are supported by their community. Further rigorous post-positivist research, particularly quantitative, is needed to generalise the findings and replicate former studies. Areas of special interest are the causes of anti-Roma discrimination other than ethnicity, the victimisation of children, the Roma’s lack of institutional trust and the relation between victimisation and offending. Conducting comparisons with the general population is essential, and we propose that victims’ surveys and self-reported delinquency studies include questions on ethnicity.

Analytic Criminology: Mechanisms and Methods in the Explanation of Crime and its Causes

Criminology is a smorgasbord of disparate theory and poorly integrated research findings. Theories tend to focus either on people's crime propensity or the criminogenic inducements of environments; rarely are these two main approaches effectively combined in the analysis of crime and its causes. Criminological research often either avoids questions of causation and explanation (e.g., risk factor approach) or is based on research designs that yield highly partial accounts (e.g., place-oriented experimental work). To advance knowledge about crime and its causes and prevention, we argue that there is a need for an analytic criminology that allows key theoretical insights and central empirical findings about people's crime propensities and environments’ criminogenic inducements and their combination to be integrated based on an adequate action theory. In this review, we outline this approach and its main methodological implications and discuss how its focus on why and how questions leads to a characteristic integration of theory development, methods, and research. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Green Criminology: Capitalism, Green Crime and Justice, and Environmental Destruction

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. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.