NCJ Number
208343
Journal
Criminology Volume: 42 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2004 Pages: 1009-1041
Date Published
November 2004
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This study examined cohort and period effects on the production of criminological knowledge between 1951 and 1993.
Abstract
Criminologists have been criticized by those in their own discipline as lacking a sense of their own history, and thus lacking an understanding of the social forces that shape the discipline. The current study draws on Karl Mannheim’s work on generations, on Maurice Halbwach’s writings on the presentist orientation of collective memory, and on new ideas about the institutional context of knowledge production. A content analysis was performed on 1,390 articles appearing in leading American sociology, criminology, and law and society research journals from 1951 through 1993. Three main findings emerged from the multivariate regression analyses: (1) cohort membership plays a role in the knowledge production about crime and crime control; (2) period effects are strong and highly significant in explaining changes in scholarly knowledge about crime and crime control in America; and (3) a portion of the strong period effect can be explained by changes in the institutional environment of academics, including increases in political funding and increasing specialization within the field. These findings suggest that both cohort membership and time period have considerable influence on the topics studied, the type of theory examined, and the data utilized by criminologists. Recent institutional changes have resulted in closer ties between criminology and public policy concerns. It is important to reap the benefits of this focus while still maintaining critical distance and continuing to focus on areas of criminological study that escape current policy debates. Figures, tables, references