European Journal of Criminology
The European Journal of Criminology is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality original research. It is the prime European source for authoritative information and analysis on crime and criminal justice issues. Launched in January 2004 by the European Society of Criminology in partnership with SAGE Publishing, the journal seeks to open channels of communication between academics, researchers and policy makers across the wider Europe.
At a time when crime and punishment is being hotly debated across Europe, European Journal of Criminology brings together broad theoretical accounts of crime, analyses of quantitative data, comparative studies, systematic evaluations of interventions and discussions of criminal justice institutions.
Each issue includes a ‘country survey’ to summarize essential facts about a country's criminal justice system, review trends in crime and punishment, and discuss major publications in recent years.
"As criminology becomes steadily more international and comparative in its focus it is timely that this new journal should be launched. With its broad focus and special features it will be required reading for anyone interested in European penal systems and practices." Tim Newburn, London School of Economics, UK
"The need for a comparative and international criminology has never been so apparent or so urgent. The creation of the European Journal of Criminology is a vital step in realizing the aspiration of a criminology of and for Europe. Lively, topical and serious - this is one of the most significant developments in our field in recent years." Richard Sparks, University of Edinburgh, UK
European Journal of Criminology is available on SAGE Journals Online.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
The European Journal of Criminology is a refereed journal published by SAGE Publishing and the European Society of Criminology. It provides a forum for research and scholarship on crime and criminal justice institutions. The journal publishes high quality articles using varied approaches, including discussion of theory, analysis of quantitative data, comparative studies, systematic evaluation of interventions, and study of institutions of political process. The journal also covers analysis of policy, but not description of policy developments. Priority is given to articles that are relevant to the wider Europe (within and beyond the EU) although findings may be drawn from other parts of the world. There is a particular emphasis on the use of evidence generated by sound social science methods to evaluate criminological ideas and policy.
| Kyle Treiber | Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK |
| Beth Hardie | Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK |
| Gaëtan Cliquennois | French National Centre for Scientific Research, University of Strasbourg and DCS, Law and Social Change, University of Nantes, France |
| Anna Di Ronco | Department of Sociology and Centre for Criminology, University of Essex, England |
| Adam Edwards | School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK |
| Rok Hacin | Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Slovenia |
| Claire Hamilton | School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University, Ireland |
| Amy Nivette | Department of Sociology, Utrecht University and Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Netherlands |
| Marcelo F Aebi | University of Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Richard Bennett | American University, USA |
| Catrien C. J. H. Bijleveld | Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) and Free University Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Leonidas K. Cheliotis | London School of Economics, UK |
| Margarita Dobrynina | Law Institute of Lithuania, Lithuania and University of Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Felipe Estrada Dörner | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| Stephan Farrall | University of Derby, UK |
| Susanne Karstedt | Griffith University, Australia |
| Jan W de Keijser | Leiden University, Netherlands |
| Hans-Jürgen Kerner | University of Tübingen, Germany |
| Janne Kivivuori | University of Helsinki, Finland |
| Edward Kleemans | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| Krzysztof Piotr Krajewski | Jagiellonian University, Poland |
| Miklós Levay | Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) Hungary |
| Dario Melossi | University of Bologna, Italy |
| Laura Piacentini | University of Strathclyde, UK |
| Julian Roberts | University of Oxford, UK |
| Juri Saar | University of Tartu, Estonia |
| Alenka Selih | University of Ljubljana, Slovenia |
| Alex Sutherland | The Behavioural Insights Team, UK |
| Robert Svensson | Malmö University, Sweden |
- Peer review policy
1.1 Authorship - Article types
- How to submit your manuscript
3.1 ORCID - Journal contributor’s publishing agreement
4.1 Sage Choice and Open Access - Declaration of conflicting interests policy
5.1 Research Data - Other conventions
- Acknowledgments
7.1 Funding acknowledgement - Publishing Policies
8.1 Publication Ethics
8.2 Plagiarism
8.3 Permissions - Manuscript style
9.1 File types
9.2 Journal style
9.3 Reference style
9.4 Manuscript preparation
9.4.1 Keywords and abstracts: Helping readers find your article online
9.4.2 Corresponding author contact details
9.4.3 Guidelines for submitting artwork, figures and other graphics
9.4.4 Guidelines for submitting supplemental files
9.4.5 English language editing services - After acceptance
10.1 Proofs
10.2 E-Prints
10.3 Sage production
10.4 OnlineFirst publication - Further information
The European Journal of Criminology is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality original research. It is the prime European source for authoritative information and analysis on crime and criminal justice issues. Launched in January 2004 by the European Society of Criminology in partnership with Sage Publications, the journal seeks to open channels of communication between academics, researchers and policy makers across the wider Europe.
The European Journal of Criminology operates a strictly anonymous peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
At a time when crime and punishment is being hotly debated across Europe, the European Journal of Criminology publishes original research on both criminology and criminal justice topics. The Journal considers the following kinds of article for publication:
1. Articles: These bring together broad theoretical accounts of crime, analyses of quantitative data, comparative studies, systematic evaluations of interventions and discussions of criminal justice institutions.
2. Country Surveys: These summarise essential facts about a country’s criminal justice system, review trends in crime and punishment, and discuss major publications in recent years.
On first submission papers should be between 7,000 and 9,000 words, including all references and footnotes, to allow for a maximum of 9,000 words after revisions. We are reluctant to burden our referees with very long manuscripts. Authors who suspect that their articles will have to be cut anyway should make the required deletions before submitting.
3. How to submit your manuscript
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
The European Journal of Criminology is hosted on Sage track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Please read the Manuscript Submission guidelines below, and then simply visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/euc to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
All papers must be submitted via the online system. If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please refer to the contact details below.
Kyle Treiber
Email: ejc@crim.cam.ac.uk
The title should indicate exactly, but as briefly as possible, the subject of the paper. An abstract should precede the main text, accompanied by up to 5 key words and a biographical note of 25-50 words.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
4. Journal contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. For more information please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
The European Journal of Criminology and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of articles published in the journal. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article (removing it from the journal); taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; banning the author from publication in the journal or all Sage journals, or appropriate legal action.
4.1 Sage Choice and Open Access
If you or your funder wish your article to be freely available online to non subscribers immediately upon publication (gold open access), you can opt for it to be included in Sage Choice, subject to payment of a publication fee. The manuscript submission and peer review procedure is unchanged. On acceptance of your article, you will be asked to let Sage know directly if you are choosing Sage Choice. To check journal eligibility and the publication fee, please visit Sage Choice. For more information on open access options and compliance at Sage, including self author archiving deposits (green open access) visit Sage Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.
5. Declaration of conflicting interests
Within your Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement you will be required to make a certification with respect to a declaration of conflicting interests. The European Journal of Criminology does not require a declaration of conflicting interests but recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
None applicable.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘Acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
To comply with the guidance for Research Funders, Authors and Publishers issued by the Research Information Network (RIN), the European Journal of Criminology additionally requires all Authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit Funding Acknowledgement on the Sage Journal Author Gateway for funding acknowledgement guidelines.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
European Journal of Probation and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of articles published in the journal. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article (removing it from the journal); taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; banning the author from publication in the journal or all Sage journals, or appropriate legal action.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Only electronic files conforming to the journal's guidelines will be accepted. The preferred format for text and tables of your manuscript is Word doc. Please also refer to additional guideline on submitting artwork below.
The European Journal of Criminology conforms to the Sage house style. Click here to review guidelines on Sage UK House Style
The European Journal of Criminology adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. Click here to review the guidelines on Sage Harvard to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, download the Sage Harvard output style by following this link and save to the appropriate folder (normally for Windows C:\Program Files\EndNote\Styles and for Mac OS X Harddrive:Applications:EndNote:Styles). Once you’ve done this, open EndNote and choose “Select Another Style...” from the dropdown menu in the menu bar; locate and choose this new style from the following screen.
The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point.
9.4.1 Keywords and Abstracts: Helping readers find your article online
The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting Sage’s Journal Author Gateway Guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
9.4.2 Corresponding Author Contact details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
9.4.3 Guidelines for submitting artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.Tables and figures should be numbered and should be referred to in the text. They should appear together at the end of the file. Their location should be indicated in the text (e.g. 'Table 2 about here). Footnotes should be kept to a minimum. They should appear together at the end of the main text (although in the journal they will be printed at the bottom of the page).
9.4.4 Guidelines for submitting supplemental files
The European Journal of Criminology accepts supplemental files.
9.4.5 English Language Editing services
Non-English speaking authors who would like to refine their use of language in their manuscripts might consider using a professional editing service. Visit English Language Editing Services for further information.
We will email a PDF of the proofs to the corresponding author.
Sage provides authors with access to a PDF of their final article. For further information please visit http://www.sagepub.co.uk/authors/journal/reprint.sp.
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
A large number of Sage journals benefit from OnlineFirst, a feature offered through Sage’s electronic journal platform, Sage Journals Online. It allows final revision articles (completed articles in queue for assignment to an upcoming issue) to be hosted online prior to their inclusion in a final print and online journal issue which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. For more information please visit our OnlineFirst Fact Sheet
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Editorial Office as follows:
Beth Hardie