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International Journal ofComparative and AppliedCriminal JusticePublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcac20
How International Are CriminalJustice Journals? A ContentAnalysis of the InternationalFunctional Agenda of TwoAmerican JournalsPATRICK EDOBOR IGBINOVIA aa Alabama State UniversityPublished online: 01 Sep 2011.
To cite this article: PATRICK EDOBOR IGBINOVIA (1984) How International Are CriminalJustice Journals? A Content Analysis of the International Functional Agenda of TwoAmerican Journals, International Journal of Comparative and Applied CriminalJustice, 8:1-2, 113-125, DOI: 10.1080/01924036.1984.9688790
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE AND APPLIED CRIMINAL JUSTICE SPRING 1984, VOL. 8, NO. 1
How International Are Criminal Justice Journals? A Content Analysis of the International Functional Agenda of
Two American Journals
PATRICK EDOBOR IGBINOVIA Alabama State University
A content analysis of the published materials in the Journal of Criminal Justice: An Inter- national Journal (JC J) , and the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice (IJCACJ) was undertaken to evaluate if the international functional agenda of the journals to fill the present need for dissemination of new information, ideas and methods (to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area) has been achieved. It was found that there is very limited international discourse currently going on in the Journal of Criminal Justice and that the bulk of the discussion in print in the journal is virtually inter- and intra-American. On the other hand, it was found that a substantial number of materials published in the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice emanated from outside the United States, were written by non-U.S. practitioners and aca- demicians, and focused on non-American criminal justice systems. It was concluded that in terms of regional composition of both journals’ editorial staff, regional distribution of articles by source of origin and regional distribution of articles by subject content, the IJCACJ is more global in scope than the JCJ. The net result is that this journal is more “international” because it is seen to be more likely to generate and promote cross-cultural dialogue in the criminologylcriminal justice enterprise.
Introduction The maiden issue of the Journal of Criminal lustice (JCJ) was published in
March 1973. In it the editor stated categorically that the journal “is an inter- national journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and methods, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area” (JCJ, vol. 1, 1973: 88). It was also indicated that the journal would be pleased to receive contributions from all parts of the world. In addition to these remarks, the title page of the journal mentioned that it was “an international journal.”
Similarly, the first issue of the International Journal of Comparative and Ap- plied Criminal Justice (IJCACJ) was released in 1977. In a pamphlet issued by the sponsors, the purposes and goals of the journal were spelled out as follows:
The purpose of this journal is to encourage exchange of scientific findings and theoretical views in order to improve civil, social and world peace . . . to focus on cross-cultural aspects of criminology. The title reflects the journal’s goals: scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers are provided a format within which to compare ideas and results.
While the cross-cultural approach has been widely applied in many flelds of social inquiry, such endeavors have been limited in the study of criminology. The
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114 PATRICK EDOBOR ZGBINOVZA
Journal maintains that crime is a universal phenomenon rather that a par- ticularistic national problem. Indeed, one of the Journal’s goals is to focus atten- tion upon this perception. Comparative analysis holds the promise for increasing the capacity of nations as such to deal with crime by reviewing the effective, the innovative, and the economical programs being carried out in various countries.
The “international” in the titles of the IJCACJ and the JCJ respectively could perhaps be seen in two ways. First, in the sense that the journals are marketed, circulated, distributed, or read worldwide or in parts of the world other than the United States. Second, in the sense that in content and de- meanor the journals are designed as means for sharing and as vehicles for com- ments on theories, practices, concepts, and methodologies concerning global problems in the criminal justice field. Implied in the latter meaning of the term is the notion that the journals both in fact and in deed be of an international character and that they employ their medium to promote cross-cultural dis- course in the area of criminal justice.
The need for international or cross-cultural dialogue (as opposed to the traditional national or local approaches) in the problems of crime and criminal justice cannot be overemphasized. Such discussion could perhaps lead to a new understanding of the criminal justice system, of crime and the social responses to the problem of crime. For example, to have been able to document the changing concepts of crime in urban and rural areas of the developing world or to have been able to follow the changes in the patterns of behavior in these con- trasting settings (over the past century of industrial petration) may have con- tributed a great deal to our understanding of crime in the world. Hippchen (1981) is persuaded for instance, that a new world orientation to the study of crime and the criminal justice system is needed. He believes that an inter- national perspective will yield greater explanatory results. He reminds us of Shafer who recently noted that the reality of the crime situation today is that little happens in crime and criminal justice which does not have some im- mediate international repercussion and that current national approaches to the problem are relatively ineffective (1981:2) In an identical vein, Miracle (1981) opines that a forum for facilitating cross-cultural dialogue would yield more non-Western data which could be used to educate criminal justice students and thereby decrease the possibility of perpetuating the existing situa- tion of failing to challenge students’ ethnocentric bias while at the same time helping to eliminate an anti-non-Western attitude toward research in general (1981:386).
The JCJ and IJCACJ already have some ten and six years of publishing behind them. In light of their cliams to be international journals established to provide a forum for the exchange of scientific findings and concepts concerning problems in the criminal justice system, it is perhaps not inappropriate or too early to assess how well they have fulfilled their names (as international jour- nals) and their claims (to act as vehicles for the promotion of cross-cultural dia- logue between practitioners and academicians in criminology and the criminal justice field). As a matter of fact, it is necessary to assess or evaluate journals
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HOWINTERNATIONAL ARE CRIMINAL ]US TICE JOURNALS? 115
periodically. However, the question put here is: how international are the JCJ and the I JCACJ?
Methodology To answer this question, a content analysis of both the JCJ and the IJCACJ
was carried out. The choice of the two journals was arrived at through the use of journal listings in two criminal justice reference books: Criminal Justice Periodicals (1979) and the International Guide to Periodicals in Criminal ]us- tice (1979). These reference works not only list journals in alphabetical order, they also list them by topic of most immediate subject concern or interest. Thus, for example, the latter have thirteen subject headings deemed appro- priate for the major subject divisions in the field of criminal justice. The head- ings serve to indicate the general areas covered by each periodical (e.g., Crimi- nology and Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Corrections and Offender Reha- bilitation, Police and Law Enforcement, Crime and Crime Prevention, etc.) For the purpose of this study, this author chose to analyze only those U.S. criminal justice journals named in those reference directories which have the words “International” and “Criminal Justice” as part of their official title. This procedure netted two journals: the IJCACJ and JCJ.
A ten year period (1973-1982) was reviewed for the JCJ while a six year period (1977-1982) was analyzed for the IJCACJ. All issues of the journals were examined, with the author placing emphasis on lead articles, research notes, and comments which appeared during the period under review. Book reports or reviews, editorials, and publications abstracts were not included. The source of origin of each article was derived from the addresses of authors presented with each section. The actual subject content of each article or note was determined in three ways. The first method involved closely scrutinizing the title of each article. The second method involved reading abstracts of the materials presented at the beginning of each article or note. In situtations where the two above mentioned approaches failed to provide clues about the subject matter of an article, a third approach was utilized. This method in- volved reading whole or parts of articles. The point of termination of reading was determined at the juncture where the content became clear to this writer. It is worthy of note that most of the abstracts at the beginning of each article provided descriptions, contents, and conclusions of the problem with which the materials published were concerned. Most of the published materials were intelligible enough by themselves as to make their subjects easily decipherable.
Ten volumes of the JCJ (45 issues and 264 articles) and six volumes of the IJCACJ (12 issues and 118 articles) (see tables I and 11) were analyzed by the process just described. The procedure placed very few limitations on the in- ferences that were made from the results of this content analysis. The exercise was, in the opinion of this writer, guided by known systematic procedures for marshalling and presenting objective evidence in matters such as the one of the concern of this article. The content analysis presented on the IJCACJ and JCJ was carried out closely following the approach indicated by Holsti (1969) and
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116 PATRICK EDOBOR IGBINOVIA
Carney (1972). The selection of questions, recording units and categories posed few difficulties and were influenced by the Carter and Wilkins (1968) and Wright (1970) studies. One major difference arose, between this study and those cited, concerning the selection of context unit. In this study each separate article and note was the context unit, with editorials, commentaries and book reviews be- ing excluded. Both Carter and Wilkins (1968) and Wright (1970) used the in- dexing systems of their respective journals as their context unit, which took the whole problem of selecting recording units and categories out of their control (O’Connor, 1980:12).
Results and Findings of the Editorial Committee A review of the composition of the “Editorial Board” of the JCJ reveals that
all six members reside in the United States. Of the fourteen members of the “Editorial Advisory Board,” twelve (86%) are in the United States. The re- maining two are from Japan and Australia. What this boils down to is that of the twenty members of the editorial committee, eighteen (90%) are from the United States while the remaining two (10 %) represent the rest of the world community. This is token representation for a journal that is said to be “an international journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and method, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area” (JCJ, vol. 1, 1973:88).
On the other hand, of the seventy-nine members of the “Editorial Staff of the IJCACJ, 25 (31 %) are from North America. Of this number, one is a Cana- dian national and the rest are Americans. Sixteen members (20%) of the edi- torial staff represent Asia, 11 (14 %) Africa, 12 (15 %) Warsaw Pact countries, 5 (6%) South America and 10 (12%) Western Europe. It is clear from these figures that the IJCACJ has a more global editorial representation than the JCJ and perhaps is more likely to generate or encourage the exchange of scientific knowledge and findings in criminal justice between practitioners and students of the system on a worldwide basis.
Regional Distribution of Articles by Source of Origin Similarly, of the total of two hundred and sixty four articles and notes pub-
lished in JCJ from 1973 through 1982, two hundred and fifty-eight (97%) origi- nated or were sent by authors in the United States while four (1.8 %) had Cana- dian addresses. One article each was sent by authors living at the time of writ- ing in England and Japan. The article from England had multiple authorship. The first author that was listed as living in England while the second author has his address in Canada. For the purpose of this analysis however the source of origin of the article was tallied according to the first author listed. It should be pointed out that this only occurred once in the JCJ and six times in the IJCACJ. The content analysis of source of origin of articles published in JCJ in- dicates an apparent paucity of published materials emanating from other parts of the world except the United States.
Conversely, although most of the articles printed in the IJCACJ emanated or originated in North America (78%) (U.S. 72% and Canada 6%), articles
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HOWINTERNATIONAL ARE CRIMINALJUSTICE JOURNALS? 117
were also sent from other parts of the world. For example, eleven articles (9 %) were sent from Western Europe, 5 (4 %) from Communist Bloc countries and 4 (3 %) from the United Nations. Other regions of the world from which manu- scripts originated were Asia, Africa and the Middle East. However, there were no materials from South America. Despite a heavy concentration of articles in the IJCACJ originating from North America, the journal appears to be more international in scope and content and seems more geared to enchancing the dissemination of new information on the criminological enterprise on a global level than the JCJ.
Regional Distribution of Articles by Subject Content All the 264 articles and notes published in the JCJ from 1973 through 1982
and in the IJCACJ (1977-1982) were reviewed according to their subject mat- ter or the research locations or situations which they emphasized (table V) . One hundred and ninety-three articles (73 %) published in JCJ dealt specifically with criminal justice situations in the United States while fifty-six (21 %) dealt with general issues in criminologyicriminal justice. Only 15 (5 %) articles stressed non-American settings or situations. These were directly about Canada, England, Asia, China, Israel, Nigeria, Holland, New South Wales, Sweden and Finland. Again, the reality of the situation reveals that the over- whelming majority of articles published in JCJ dealt categorically with the criminal justice system in the United States as opposed to criminal justice situa- tions in other parts of the world.
Table V shows that of a total of 118 articles published in the IJCACJ for the period under review, 38 (32) dealt with general issues in criminologylcriminal justice, 30 (25 %) focused on criminologylcriminal justice issues in North America (especiallythe U.S.), while 17 (14%), 10 (8%) and 12 (10%) werespe- cifically concerned with criminal justice situations or conditions in Western Europe, Africa and Communist Bloc countries respectively. Other areas of the world in which articles published in the IJCACJ concentrated were Asia (4 % ) , the Middle East (3%), South America and Papau, New Guinea. Every conti- nent of the world received attention in the publishing program of the IJCACJ. When this is compared with the JCJ, it is evident that IJCACJ covered more topics on a worldwide basis than the JCJ.
Summary and Conclusions In view of the JCJ editor’s hope that the journal would be “pleased to receive
contributions from all parts of the world (JCJ, vol. 1, no. 1, 1973:88), our analysis of the journal indicates that while some contributions from other parts of the international criminal justice community could have been entertained, the articles that have actually been printed in the journal have been negligible. However, this may not reflect an editorial decision not to publish but could reflect the lack of submission from other countries.
From the content analysis of both the JCJ and IJCACJ emerged three basic facts. One, while articlednotes emanating from outside the United States,
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written by non-U.S. practitioners and academicians and focusing on non- American criminal justice systems is virtually non-existent in the JCJ, the ar- ticles published in the IJCACJ are more truly international in scope, they emanate from virtually all parts of the globe and dealt with criminology/ criminal justice topics on a worldwide basis as opposed to criminal justice topics focusing on the United States. Two, while the composition and character of the JCJ’s editorial board and the editorial advisory board is hardly global in scope and perhaps does not encourage cross-cultural dialogue, the editorial makeup of the I JCACJ represents virtually every continent or region in the world. The net result of this diverse and broad representation is perhaps reflected in the quality and quantity of the cross-cultural discourse in the IJCACJ. Three, from the point of view of (1) regional distribution of articles (2) regional distribution of articles by source of origin and (3) regional distribu- tion of editorial committee, the IJCACJ beats the JCJ hands down. In short, when compared to the IJCACJ, there is very limited international dialogue or discussion currently going on in the JCJ on the problems and theories in the criminal justice area. The bulk of the discussion in print in the JCJ unlike those in the IJCACJ are virtually intra- and inter-American. That is, in content and demeanor the IJCACJ is more geared to offering itself as a means for sharing and as a vehicle for comments on theories, practices, concepts and methodolo- gies concerning global problems in the criminal justice field than the JCJ.
There is perhaps no criminal justice journal in circulation today that is more international in scope than the IJCACJ. Similarly, the editorial staff of the journal represents a bright galaxy of seasoned academics and professionals in all areas of the criminal justice enterprise. The quality of the journal’s print is superb, perhaps unbeatable, the journal’s format is excellent and the cover unparalleled. In the opinion of the author, of all the parades of criminal justice journals worldwide, the IJCACJ is perhaps one of the best. It is definitely an in- ter stelas luna manores - a moon among lesser stars. The unfortunate aspect of the IJCACJ perhaps, is that is published biannually unlike the JCJ which is published bimonthly.
How, then, can journals live up to their international functional agenda or how can “international” journals encourage more international or cross- cultural participation in their publishing programs? First, an international journal’s publishing schedule and program must be seen to reflect a more inter- national representation and promote more cross-cultural dialogue in the crimi- nal justice field. The fact that the bulk of the articles/notes come from inside the United States or the fact that criminal justice personnel and academia in several continents of the world are not represented on the editorial boards of an international journal, for example, does not indicate much of “an exchange of the theories, concepts, and methodologies between the theorist and practi- tioners” in “all parts of the world.” It is, therefore, necessary for international journals to augment and widen their board memberships. The new members should be able to introduce to the journals or have the journals introduced to potential contributors in their regions of the world. Third, international jour-
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HOW INTERNATIONAL ARE CRIMINAL JUSTICE JOURNALS? 119
nals should mount advertisement/publicity campaigns at the criminal justice/ criminology conferences or in journals published or circulated in other parts of the world inviting contributions,
The campaign should include appearances to acquaint delegates with the publishing program of the journals. For instance, the International Society of Criminology met at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City Uni- versity of New York in June 1981. Criminal justice academicians and practi- tioners from many parts of the world were present. International journals should avail themselves of such opportunities.
Finally, it should be categorically stated that the intent of this content analysis is not motivated by parochial self interest or ethnocentric bias nor am I advocating that “low stuff” articles be accepted for publication in “inter- national” journals solely on the basis of area subject matter, source of origin of material or nationality of contributors. However, what is being advocated is that more authoritative dialogue and exploration of the theories, concepts, methodologies and other such matters affecting the criminal justice system on a more global basis is needed and that journals which called themselves ‘inter- national journal(s)” live up to their promise of being forums for the exchange of such ideas. This would be an invaluable contribution and addition to the lit- erature in the criminal justice area.
Between the criminal justice academicians and practitioners in North America and their counterparts in the other parts of the world, there is so much that can be explored together. The one is perhaps not less committed to reduc- ing crime and overhauling the criminal justice machinery than the other. “Crime,” the IJCACJ opines, “Is a universal phenomenon rather than a par- ticularistic national problem.”
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120 PATRICK EDOBOR IGBINOVIA
Table I C o n t r i b u t i o n s P e r Volune: J o u r n a l of C r i m i n a l J u s t i c e ( J C J )
J o u r n a l Issue Volume No. 1
I (1973) 1 5
I V (1976) 1 8
-I-- (1977 1 ,
(1979)
(1980)
(1931 1
(1982)
Column T o t a l
I s s u e Issue Issue I s s u e No. 2 I Mo. 3 1 No. 4 j No. 5
a 7
I s s u e No. 6
..-
6
5
6
1 7
ROw T o t a l
23
29
19
28
24
26
1 7
30
33
36
**%rand To ta l (;; = 2 6 4 )
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HOW INTERNATIONAL A RE CRIMINAL JUSTICE 10 UR NA LS? 121
I (1977)
T a b l e 11 C o n t r i b u t i o n s Per Volume :
I n t c r n a t i o n a l Journal of C o r g a r a t i v e and Applied C r i m i n a l J u s t i c e (IJCACJ)
#
8 9 17
I J o u r n a l I 1 Issue I Volume No. 2 T o t a l
**kGrand T o t a l (N = 118) Dow
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122 PATRZCK EDOBOR IGBZNOVZA
5
3 N II Z
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HOWINTERNATIONAL ARE CRIMINALJUSTICE IOURNALS?
--+---- ;I r(
I
I
N
N
4 -i rl
II z
123
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HOWZNTERNATZONAL ARE CRZMZNAL JUS TZCE 10 URNALS? 125
NOTE
In this study, this writer opted for the latter sense of the term. The rationale is that it is deemed to be more important that “international” journals be seen to reflect the notions inherent in the latter meaning of the word rather than the former. That is, an academic international journal should be less concerned about the international market that it addresses but rather be more concerned that the subject areas that are covered in its pages be of multinational interest and reflect multinational or international participation.
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