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Last Updated on Thursday, 01 March 2012 18:31

Dr Liam Leonard

Welcome to the Editorial Page of CRIMSOC: the Journal of Social Criminology. As JSC Founding Editor, I have endeavored to develop this publication in a manner which accurately reflects the cutting edge of criminological research from around the world. To date, the JSC has published articles from researchers based in all continents, and provided a forum for the exploration of salient and challenging issues in all areas of criminology, justice and rights. In order to maintain our place at fore of dynamic criminological debate, I am introducing the CRIMSOC Editorial Page, as a forum for guests editors from across the field of criminology to discuss key issues which they find most relevant at the time of writing.

As a publisher, editor and academic, I, like many others, have found the recent events surrounding the print media in the United Kingdom to be of great significance, providing as they do a fascinating insight into the workings of a global media corporation engaged in the processes of reporting 'news'. With criminal investigations into aspects of the workings of this media group underway, the relationship between the media and the public's understanding of crime must become an area for further examination by criminologists and social theorists who wish to understand the complexities of late modernity. It would appear that large scale media groups have become the proponents of a new form of hegemonic control, with news manipulation becoming the latest version of the 'manufactured consent' which Noam Chomsky outlined so articulately at the beginning of the 1990s:

http://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Noam-Chomsky-Media/dp/B00005Y726

Without doubt, the major institutions of the modernist era such as large media conglomerates, the political parties which they supported, and the banks which funded their agendas, have all come under particular scrutiny since the turn of the century. The correlation between media, state and international finance has been at the root of the expansion of the neo-liberal project which has underpinned globalization. In light of the worldwide economic downturn and related fiscal crisis, it may be a good time to re-evaluate the role of the media in perpetuating certain ideological assumptions, be they about politics, economics or crime. We in the world of criminology may use this opportunity to move beyond a more fundamental interest in the workings of gangs, police, prisons and courts, in order to undertake a more comprehensive examination of the linkages between crime, power and oppression which shape the lives of all in society for better or for worse.

Over the coming months, CRIMSOC: the Journal of Social Criminology is extending an open invitation to criminologists of all hues to utilise the CRIMSOC Editorial page to discuss any issues which they feel relevant to the wider debates about crime, justice and rights in a context of their choice. In so doing we hope to bring an energetic and innovative element to criminological discourse in a open and, we hope, exciting way. If you would like to participate as a Guest Editor for CRIMSOC, please contact me with your Editorial.