Public criminology is an approach to criminology that disseminates criminological research beyond academia to broader audiences, such as criminal justice practitioners and the general public.[1] Public criminology is closely tied with “public sociology”,[2] and draws on a long line of intellectuals engaging in public interventions related to crime and justice.[3][4][5][6] Some forms of public criminology are conducted through methods such as classroom education, academic conferences, public lectures, “news-making criminology”,[7] government hearings, newspapers, radio and television broadcasting and press releases.[8] Advocates of public criminology argue that the energies of criminologists should be directed towards "conducting and disseminating research on crime, law, and deviance in dialogue with affected communities."[3] Public criminologists focus on reshaping the image of the criminal and work with communities to find answers to pressing questions.[9] Proponents of public criminology see it as potentially narrowing "the yawning gap between public perceptions and the best available scientific evidence on issues of public concern",[3] a problem they see as especially pertinent to matters of crime and punishment.[10][11]
The general response to public criminology has been positive,[12][13] however several authors have voiced a number of concerns: one set of concerns focuses on the ability of public criminologists to effectively impact policy decisions;[14][15][13][16][17] another set of concerns suggests that initial forays into public criminology have been blind to the political-economic structures that shape Criminal Justice Systems;[18][19] a third concern centers on the barriers that remain for participating in public criminology.[3][20][21]
^Piquero, Alex R. (2019-01-02). "Nothing Fake Here: The Public Criminology Case for Being Smart on Crime by Being Smarter on People". Justice Evaluation Journal. 2 (1): 73–92. doi:10.1080/24751979.2019.1597636. ISSN2475-1979. S2CID150509542.
^Loader, Ian; Sparks, Richard (2010). "What is to be Done With Public Criminology?". Criminology and Public Policy. 9 (4): 771. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9133.2010.00669.x.
^Land, Kenneth (2010). "Who will be the public criminologists? How will they be supported?". Criminology and Public Policy. 9 (4): 769–770. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9133.2010.00668.x.
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