Changes in Scholarly Influence in Major American Criminology and Criminal Justice Journals between 1986 and 2000

Abstract

In order to investigate changes in scholarly influence in criminology and criminal justice over a 15-year time period, the most-cited scholars in six major American journals were determined for the period 1996-2000, and results were compared with those obtained for 1991-1995 and 1986-1990. The number of cited authors in these journals increased by 50% over this time period. Some highly cited authors were specialists, because they had one or two major works (usually theoretical books) cited a lot, whereas others were versatile because they had many different works with fewer citations each. The most highly cited works tended to be books rather than articles. During this 15-year time period, older scholars such as Marvin E. Wolfgang were being cited less often, while younger scholars such as Robert J. Sampson were becoming more highly cited. The most-cited scholars in 1996-2000 were Robert J. Sampson in American criminology journals and Francis T. Cullen in American criminal justice journals. An analysis of citations in Criminology in 2005 showed the emergence of the next generation of highly cited scholars, such as Alex R. Piquero. The most highly cited scholars in American criminology journals focused on longitudinal/criminal career research and/or criminological theories. The most highly cited scholars in American criminal justice journals focused either on these topics or on criminal justice issues such as rehabilitation, sentencing, and law enforcement.In order to investigate scholarly influence in criminology and criminal justice, Cohn and Farrington (1994b) investigated the most-cited scholars in six major American and international journals in criminology and criminal justice during the time period 1986-1990. The same methods were exactly repeated to assess the most-cited scholars in these journals during the period 1991 (Cohn and Farrington 1998a. The main aim of the present article is to repeat this methodology to assess the most-cited scholars during the period 1996-2000 and to draw conclusions about changes in citations during this 15-year time period.

Scholarly Influence in Criminology and Criminal Justice Journals in 1990–2005

“…The most-cited scholars in these six journals during the third time period were Travis Hirschi, Michael R. Gottfredson, David P. Farrington, and Robert J. Sampson. Most recently, this research has been extended to 2001-2005, revealing that the most-cited scholars in these journals during the fourth 5-year time period were David P. Farrington, Robert J. Sampson, Travis Hirschi, and Francis T. Cullen (Cohn, 2011a).…”

“…The most-cited scholars during the second time period were Travis Hirschi, David P. Farrington, Michael R. Gottfredson, Alfred Blumstein, and John Braithwaite. It was then repeated for 1996-2000 (Cohn & Farrington, 2007b). The most-cited scholars in these four journals during the third time period were John Braithwaite, David Garland, David P. Farrington, Richard V. Ericson, and Ken Pease.…”

Les paradigmes de la revue Criminologie : auteurs, revues et disciplines qui ont marqué son histoire

“…Plusieurs études ont montré que le nombre de citations reçues est corrélé au prestige universitaire, comme l'attribution d'un prix Nobel (Cole et Cole, 1971), ou à un salaire plus élevé (Diamond Jr, 1986), mais aussi au prestige et à la visibilité de la revue où paraissent les travaux (Larivière et Gingras, 2010) et au nombre de coauteurs de l'article cité (Beaver, 2004). Parmi les plus populaires, on retrouve les travaux de Cohn et Farrington (1994, 1996, 2012, qui pré-sentent les auteurs et les travaux les plus cités dans une ou plusieurs revues de criminologie et de justice criminelle 3 , ainsi que l'évolution des tendances dans le temps (Cohn, 2011 ;Cohn et Farrington, 1998. Ces travaux et bien d'autres décrivent la place importante qu'occupe un petit nombre d'auteurs et publications.…”

“…En criminologie, plusieurs analyses de citations ont été réalisées au cours des 25 dernières années (Cohn, 2011 ;Cohn et Farrington, 1998, 2012Nadeau, Mongeon et Larivière, 2018). Ces analyses ont relevé les auteurs et les travaux les plus fréquemment cités dans les grandes revues amé-ricaines de criminologie « traditionnelle 2 ».…”

“Scholarly influence” and white-collar crime scholarship

“…To the degree that this is the case it is understandable that scholars involved in research on white-collar crime and law and society topics would have few publications in the journals analyzed by Cohn and Farrington and consequently they would have few chances to be cited in articles published in those journals. This may explain the absence from the suggested influential scholars' list [8] along with students of white-collar crime who are also known scholars of law and society including Kitty Calavita, Malcolm Feeley, David Garland, James Jacobs, Jonathan Simon, and Franklin Zimring.…”