Writing Style (crim-writing-style)
A Criminology paper must be readable across the field's disciplines (sociology, psychology,
criminal justice, economics), formatted to the journal's APA-based style, and written in
bias-free, person-first language. This skill is about reaching the field and respecting the format
— not about generating claims.
When to trigger
- Drafting the introduction, framing the contribution, or final polish
- Aligning citations/headings/format to the journal's APA-based style
- Checking language about offenders, victims, and justice-involved people
- Tightening prose before submission
Reach the interdisciplinary field
-
Front-load the contribution. By the end of the introduction the reader knows the question, the
theory, the design, and why it matters to criminology. Don't make a reader dig for the "so what."
-
Lead with the mechanism, not the dataset. Frame around the criminological argument; the data are
evidence for it, not the point of the paper.
-
Minimize within-discipline jargon or define it on first use; a developmental psychologist and a
criminal-justice scholar should both follow the paper. Spell out acronyms (UCR, NIBRS, NCVS, GBTM).
-
Signpost. Clear theory → design → results → implications structure.
Format to the journal's APA-based style
-
Citations: the journal uses a form of APA; for anything unspecified, follow APA (6th ed.) —
author-date in text, an alphabetical reference list. Keep one consistent style (manage with Zotero/BibTeX).
-
Manuscript: prepare an anonymized main document plus a separate title page (the review
model is double anonymized). Include a short author biography per author on the title page
(< 100 words each).
-
Formatting: double-space everything (text, notes, tables, references); follow current Wiley
online submission file requirements.
-
Length / abstract: no numeric cap is encoded here; confirm on the live author-guidelines page and
stay within it.
Bias-free, person-first language (a Criminology expectation)
- Follow APA bias-free language guidance. Prefer "people who committed an offense," "people who were
incarcerated," "people who experienced victimization" over stigmatizing labels ("offenders," "felons,"
"victims" as identities) where feasible.
- Apply the same care when discussing race, ethnicity, and the criminal-legal system.
Anti-patterns
- An intro that describes a dataset before stating the criminological question
- Burying the theoretical contribution in the middle of the paper
- Mixed citation styles; self-references or acknowledgments that break anonymity in the main document
- Stigmatizing labels for justice-involved people
- Unspelled acronyms that exclude readers from other disciplines
Style execution pass for Criminology
Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the crime/justice process, measurement validity, research design, and policy consequence; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: criminology reviewers who expect theory-linked crime, justice, or harm mechanisms plus transparent measurement.
-
Do the pass: Rewrite the first two pages so each paragraph starts from the venue-level claim, not from chronology or method inventory; preserve exact source-map limits and move technical overflow to appendix or supplement.
-
Return a ledger: give
claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
-
Sibling guard: compare against Justice Quarterly for applied justice, Journal of Quantitative Criminology for methods focus, Social Problems for broader sociological framing; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
-
Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's
resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.
Output format
【Contribution + theory stated by end of intro?】[Y/N]
【Reads across disciplines?】jargon defined / acronyms spelled? [Y/N]
【APA-based style consistent】[Y/N]
【Anonymized main doc + separate title page】[Y/N]
【Bias-free / person-first language】[Y/N]
【Length/abstract within live cap】[Y/N]
【Next】crim-data-and-transparency
Supplementary resources
