Criminology is the general flagship of the field, not a regional or specialty outlet. The bar is not "new to my dataset" — it is "advances how criminology understands crime, deviance, or its control." Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.
A strong Criminology paper usually clears all four:
crim-research-design).| Looks like… | Reframe toward Criminology by… |
|---|---|
| A program evaluation | foregrounding the criminological mechanism the program reveals (sister journal CPP is the policy outlet) |
| A sociology paper that happens to use crime | tying it to a criminological theory and to the field's debates |
| A descriptive crime-trend report | asking what it tells us about why offending varies, not just that it does |
| A pure methods demo | showing the substantive criminological question the method newly answers |
Criminology is the official journal of the American Society of Criminology, published by Wiley, and its editorial team triages hard at the desk. The disposition column is the common pattern, not a rule — editor discretion governs, so confirm scope wording against the journal's current submission guidelines.
| Manuscript signal at the desk | Likely editor read | Typical disposition |
|---|---|---|
| New crime correlation, theory only named | "invoked, not tested" | desk-return |
| Single-agency program evaluation | belongs at Criminology & Public Policy | redirect to sister journal |
| Strong design, weak mechanism link | sound but generic | review, low enthusiasm |
| Theory test + within-person ID + measured offending | flagship-shaped | expert review |
Diagnostic the desk applies: would a criminologist studying a different offense, cohort, or place change how they think after reading this? A "no" predicts a return; a "yes" predicts review.
A researcher has 15 waves of offender data (illustrative) and finds men who marry between waves report about 40% fewer self-reported offenses. The between-person 40% gap is weak fit; reframed as "does entering marriage produce within-person desistance net of selection" it tests Sampson and Laub's age-graded informal social control against a self-selection rival, and becomes a flagship-level Article.
【Question】one sentence
【Criminological significance】which core debate it advances, and why it travels
【Contribution type】theory test / extension / adjudication / measurement / reappraisal
【Type】Article / Research Note
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / better at a sister journal (why)
【Next】crim-literature-positioning
../../resources/external_tools.md — crime and life-course data sources../../resources/official-source-map.md — Criminology scope, article types, sister-journal distinction