A Preliminary Assessment of Small World Scholarship Networks in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Abstract

The present study applies small world network analysis to 727 articles from Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency to assess scholarship collaboration trends within criminology and criminal justice (CCJ). Findings indicate that CCJ scholars tend to collaborate (versus sole author) on a great number of peer‐reviewed efforts, with several scholars collaborating with well over 10, and as many as 40, unique (non‐redundant) co‐authors. Consistent with the structure of scientific collaboration networks where scientists are separated by short paths of intermediates, Alex R. Piquero is found to be the most collaborative scholar in this sample and also the best center (central vertex) in the collaboration graph by linking to other scholars, on average, by only 3.6 degrees of separation. To further illustrate combinatorial patterns among CCJ scholars, this study also offers a descriptive and graphical analogue to the “Erdös number” from mathematics (here, the “Piquero number”), focusing on co‐authorship branching from first‐tier collaborators. In our view, small world analysis holds promise in better understanding far‐reaching collaboration patterns by the CCJ professoriate.