What is Criminology?

Mary Bosworth is Reader in Criminology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College. She joined the Oxford Centre for Criminology in 2006. She is also concurrently Professor of Criminology at Monash University, Australia. Her major research interests are in punishment, incarceration, and immigration detention with a particular focus on how matters of race, gender and citizenship shape the experience and nature of confinement.Carolyn Hoyle is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Green Templeton College. She has been at the Oxford Centre for Criminology since 1991. She has published empirical and theoretical research on a number of criminological topics including policing, domestic violence, restorative justice, and the death penalty.

• PART I CRIMINOLOGY AND ITS CONSTITUENCIES; 1. CONCEPTUAL ALLEGIANCES: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?; 2. METHODOLOGICAL ALLEGIANCES: HOW SHOULD CRIMINOLOGY BE DONE?; 3. POLITICAL ALLEGIANCES: WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY FOR?; PART II CRIMINOLOGY AND ITS BORDERS; 1. THE LIMITS OF THE DISCIPLINE: WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?; 2. THE LIMITS OF GEOGRAPHY: DOES CRIMINOLOGY TRAVEL?; 3. THE LIMITS OF THE ACADEMY: WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF CRIMINOLOGY?

As an exercise in reflection and reflexivity, however, the collection is an undoubted success and will, I am certain, stimulate further debate and reflection in moving towards a range of criminological futures. In Asia, it may be hoped that some of the key messages from the collection are taken up and developed so that Asian criminology might be part of that future.