European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - Call for papers! "Police Legitimacy and Police Discrimination in Europe"
The European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (EJCPR) welcomes submissions to a new special issue on "Police Legitimacy and Police Discrimination in Europe," which will be Guest-Edited by Justice Tankebe (University of Cambridge, UK).
Important dates
November 30th, 2023: deadline for submissions
December 2023 – May 2024 (projected): peer-review process; online-first publication of accepted papers
December 2024 (projected): final publication of the special issue
Criminology concerns “the processes of making laws, breaking laws, and reacting to the breaking of laws” (Sutherland, Cressey & Luckenbill 1992:3). It follows that, first, each of its three domains entails the exercise of power; hence, it can be argued that the proper subject matter for Criminology is the nature, behaviour and consequences of power. Second, to study power is inescapably to broach the legitimacy question; that is, the question of the rightness of power. When criminal justice agencies act legitimately, they are more likely to generate confidence in (democratic) institutions, gain support to protect social order, and minimise threats to the wellbeing of citizens.
The public police are an important justice agency; their (in)actions can be highly consequential for the rule of law, and for people’s safety and citizenship. However, across Europe, discriminatory policing remains a major concern. Policing is often perceived and experienced to be inappropriately uneven across gender, race, social class, political affiliation, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and migration status. These axes of discriminatory policing are also reproduced within police organisations. Recent cases in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany underscore these double concerns about discriminatory policing.
This special issue aims to advance our knowledge on the nature of the legitimacy challenges that arise from experiences and incidences of police discrimination.
Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Investigations of police violence against women and girls;
- Minorities' expectations regarding the legitimacy of policing;
- Experiences of minority police officers;
- Police responses to criminal victimisation;
- Police handling of complaints against officers;
- Intersections of multiple dimensions of identity and experiences of discriminatory policing;
- Impact of AI technologies and predictive policing on discriminatory practices.
We welcome original articles based on different forms of data: surveys, interviews, focus groups, big data, or experiments. We will also value methodological contributions on how to measure and analyse police discrimination.
About the Guest Editor
Justice Tankebe is Associate Professor of Criminology and Fellow of St. Edmund’s College at the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. Prior to coming to Cambridge, he studied for a BA in Sociology at the University of Ghana, Legon. He was awarded postdoctoral research fellowships by the Economic and Social Research Council, and the British Academy.
Justice's research interests are in police and state legitimacy, corruption, police violence, and vigilantism. His current research projects include police violence in Ghana, corruption among prospective elites in Ghana, and procedural justice and violence reduction in Cambridge (UK).
Submission Guidelines
Manuscripts are due by November 30th, 2023. Prospective authors interested in submitting their papers for consideration to the special issue are invited to notify the Guest Editor by sharing their working abstract before the paper submission deadline.
Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Instructions on formatting rules, citation style, length, and other requirements are set out here (this opens in a new tab).
Manuscripts will be reviewed on a double-blind basis by independent referees, as per the journal’s standard evaluation process. The editors will base their final decisions on the relevance to the special issue, technical quality, innovative content, and originality of research approaches and results. Once the peer-review process is completed, accepted papers will be published online on the EJCPR website and later assigned to an issue of the journal.
Submissions should be made online to the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research via Editorial Manager (see https://www.editorialmanager.com/crim (this opens in a new tab)). To ensure your paper is considered for this special issue, reply “yes” when asked during submission whether it is intended for a special issue, and select the relevant title from the drop-down menu. You may also wish to mention the special issue in your cover letter.
Contacts
If you have any questions regarding the special issue, please do not hesitate to contact:
Ernesto U. Savona – EJCPR Editor-In-Chief
Justice Tankebe – Special Issue Guest Editor
Alberto Aziani – EJCPR Associate Editor
Deborah Manzi – EJCPR Assistant Managing Editor
Please make sure to send all your communications to all the contacts listed above: ernesto.savona@unicatt.it (this opens in a new tab); jt340@cam.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab); alberto.aziani@unicatt.it (this opens in a new tab); deborah.manzi@unicatt.it (this opens in a new tab).
We look forward to considering your submissions!
Reference
Sutherland, E. H., Cressey, D. R., & Luckenbill, D. F. (1992). Principles of Criminology. AltaMira Press.