Institutional productivity in criminal justice and criminology: An examination of author affiliation in selected journals

Abstract

In recent years considerable research has focused on the scholarly activities of criminology and criminal justice educators. These efforts have revealed that the generation of knowledge about crime is a process characterized by diversity and complexity. The investigation described in this article aimed to contribute to the understanding of this process by examining the institutional affiliation of primary authors whose work has appeared in three of the leading journals in criminal justice and criminology. It analyzed all research articles and notes published by academics in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Criminology between 1976 and 1988, inclusive, and Justice Quarterly for its first five years of publication, 1984 through 1988. The analysis explored institutional authorship by journal, and this article provides a composite ranking of universities based on the frequency of first author affiliations across the journals. The findings indicate that schools supporting doctoral programs in criminology and criminal justice are generally well represented in the pages of these leading journals. Additionally, the analysis revealed that several institutions have assumed more prominent positions in the production of criminal justice and criminological knowledge in recent years.